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HISTORICAL 

SOURCES  OF 

DEFOE'S 

JOURNAL 

OF  THE 

PLAGUE 

YEAR 


WATSON 
NICHOLSON 


Columbia  Umbersrttp 
in  tfje  Cttj>  of  JJeto  gorfe 

College  of  ^fjpgictan*  anb  burgeon* 


Reference  TLibxavp 


THE 
HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OP  DEFOE'S 
JOURNAL  OF  THE  PLAGUE  YEAR 


THE  HISTORICAL  SOURCES 

OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL  OF  THE 

PLAGUE  YEAR 

Illustrated 

BY    EXTRACTS    FROM    THE    ORIGINAL    DOCU- 
MENTS   IN    THE    BURNEY    COLLECTION 
AND   MANUSCRIPT   ROOM  IN  THE 
BRITISH   MUSEUM    ' 

By  WATSON  NICHOLSON,  Ph.D. 

AUTHOR  OF 

'The  Struggle  for  a   Free  Stage  in   London' ' 


1919 

THE   STRATFORD   CO.,  Publishers 

Boston,  Massachusetts 


"'-    '{'     <■'    *■    --■ 


2,$  - -3  V"  ' ' 


Copyright   1920 

The  STRATFORD  CO.,  Publisherg 

Boston,  Mass. 


cm. 


The  Alpine  Press,  Boston,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 


PREFACE 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Great  War,  and  for  some 
years  prior  to  that  world  catastrophe,  I  was  working 
in  the  British  Museum,  the  Public  Record  Office,  and 
the  Lord  Chamberlain's  Office  in  London,  pursuing 
certain  investigations  pertaining  to  the  history  of 
the  English  Drama  and  Stage.  Throughout  my  quest 
among  the  documents  of  the  years  1664  and  1665,  I 
was  again  and  again  impressed  with  numerous  strik- 
ing resemblances  between  contemporaneous  details  of 
the  Great  Plague  and  Defoe's  account  in  his  Journal 
of  the  Plague  Year.  With  a  piqued  curiosity  I  fol- 
lowed these  clues  until  I  had  amassed  overwhelming 
evidence  of  the  complete  authenticity  of  Defoe's 
"masterpiece  of  the  imagination."  These  proofs 
were  then  submitted  to  a  few  scholars  in  England  and 
America,  and  the  unanimous  and  emphatic  judgment 
of  these  critics  was,  that  I  had  established  beyond 
cavil  the  historical  character  of  Defoe's  famous 
Journal,  hitherto  not  merely  accepted,  but  acclaimed 
and  declaimed,  as  fiction.  However,  to  make  assur- 
ance doubly  sure,  I  pursued  the  investigation  still 
further,  and,  in  more  than  two  hundred  instances 
(not  to  mention  the  scores  of  statistical  figures),  re- 
corded in  the  following  pages,  traced  to  their  sources 
statements  made  by  Defoe  in  the  Journal  of  the 
Plague  Year.  In  most  cases  the  word-for-word 
originals  have  been  quoted  (or  cited),  and,  added  to 
these,   equally   convincing  parallels   have  multiplied 


PREFACE 

the  proofs  that  Defoe  relied  upon  facts  in  compiling 
his  history  of  the  Plague.  So  great  is  the  mass  of 
contemporaneous  evidence  leading  to  the  conclusion 
arrived  at  in  the  course  of  this  study  that  the  bulk  of 
the  valuable  data  collected  from  the  printed  and  un- 
printed  sources  has  had  to  be  omitted,  both  from  the 
discussion  and  from  the  appendices,  although  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  extracts  have  been  included  to  es- 
tablish fully  the  historical  basis  of  every  statement 
made  by  Defoe  in  the  Journal  of  the  Plague  Year. 
The  discovery  and  significance  of  the  proofs  herewith 
submitted  were  publicly  accredited  to  me  by  Profes- 
sor William  Lyon  Phelps  in  the  Bookman  (New 
York)  for  November,  1915. 

W.   N. 

"Deer  Lodge" 
South  Haven,  Michigan 
July  4,  1919. 


VI 


CONTENTS 

PREFACE  PAGE 

I.     Originals  and  Parallels  of  the  Stories  in 

Defoe's  Journal 1 

II.     The  Historical  Sources  of  the  Journal    .     48 

III.  Errors  in  the  Journal      .        .        .        .82 

IV.  Summary 97 

V.  Excerpts  from  the  Original  Sources  of 
the  Journal  and  from  Hitherto  Unpub- 
lished Documents  Illustrative  of  the 
Plague : 

A.  From  Hodges 's  Loimologia         .  101 

B.  From  Vincent's   God's   Terrible 

Voice  in  the  City    .        .        .  116 

C.  From  Boghurst's    Loimographia  124 

D.  From  Kemp's  Brief  Treatise      .  128 

E.  From  J.  V.'s  Golgotha       .        .  130 

F.  From  Shutting  Up  of  Houses  in 

London 134 

G.  From  Thucydides 's  Account  of 

the  Plague  in  Athens      .         .  137 

H.     From  Harleian  MSS.  .        .  139 

vii 


CONTENTS 

PREFACE  PAGE 

I.  From  the  Unpublished  Corres- 
pondence of  the  Reverend 
Symon  Patrick        .         .         .  153 

J.     From  Flavius  Josephus's  Works  166 

K.  From  the  Bills  of  Mortality  Cov- 
ering Plague  Years  in  London 
from  1603-1666,  inclusive       .  169 

L.     From    Reports    of    the    Parish 

Clerks  in  London,  1664- '5      .  172 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 177 


Vlll 


When  a  tradition  once  becomes  established  by  the 
hallmark  of  acknowledged  authority,  it  takes  more 
than  cold  facts  to  uproot  it  from  men's  minds, — it 
takes  time.  Thus,  from  a  careless  statement,  at- 
tributed to  Sir  Walter  Scott,  that  Defoe's  Journal  of 
the  Plague  Year  belongs  to  that  "peculiar  class  of 
compositions  which  hovers  between  romance  and  his- 
tory," others,  wholly  ignorant  of  the  real  facts,  have 
enlarged  upon  the  theme  of  the  fictional  element  in  the 
Journal  until  now  it  is  innocently  catalogued  under 
"fiction"  by  reputable  publishers.  Even  Sir  Henry 
Ellis,  in  1827,  then  Keeper  of  the  MSS.  in  the  British 
Museum,  in  a  prefatory  note  to  some  letters  concern- 
ing the  Great  Plague  of  1665  (printed  in  Original 
Letters,  2nd  Ser.,  Vol.  IY) ,  asserted,  without  qualifica- 
tion, that  Defoe's  Journal  "was  an  entire  fiction." 
This  bald  dictum  often  has  been  embroidered  upon  by 
unwitting  editors,  to  the  effect,  for  example,  that  the 
Journal  is  a  masterpiece  in  its  verisimilitude,  and, 
although  it  presents  many  actual  facts  and  figures,  it 
is  to  be  eschewed  as  a  reliable  reference  on  the  Plague. 
Others  have  gotten  so  confused  by  their  certainty,  on 
the  one  hand,  that  the  work  is  primarily  one  of  the 
imagination,  and,  on  the  other,  that  it  contains  many 
probable  facts,  that  the  result  falls  little  short  of 
nonsense.  For  instance,  Walter  Wilson  in  his 
Memoirs  of  Defoe  (1830,  III,  510-13)  informs  us  that 
"it  would  baffle  the  ingenuity  of  any  but  Defoe  to 

[1] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

frame  a  history,  of  so  many  attributes,  upon  the  basis 
of  fiction."    And  Sir  Walter  Besant  (Introduction  to 
the  Journal,  Century  Classics,  p.  xix)  tells  us  that 
"that  great  physician,  Dr.  Mead,  was  so  much  de- 
ceived by  the  'Journal'  that  he  took  it  for  an  authentic 
document,"  and,  immediately  afterwards,  that  "no 
more  authentic  document  could  have  been  produced ! ' ' 
Again,  in  the  last  edition  of  the  Dictionary  of  National 
Biography  (Art.  "Defoe"),  we  read  that  Defoe's  nar- 
rative "has  an  air  of  authority  which  imposed  upon 
Dr.  Mead  .  .  .  who  quotes  it  as  an  authority."     So, 
also,  one  of  the  latest  editors  of  the  Journal   (ed. 
Everyman's  Library,  Introduction,  p.  ix)  has  a  simi- 
lar statement,  viz.,  that  it  is  "in  some  respects  Defoe's 
masterpiece;  and  its  realism,  which  is  unsurpassed, 
caused  Dr.  Mead,  the  eminent  physician  of  the  time, 
to  refer  to  the  book  some  years  afterwards  as  an  au- 
thority;" and  the  latest  edition  (11th)  of  Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica  (Art.  "Plague")  warns  the  reader 
that  "Defoe's  fascinating  Journal  of  a  Citizen  should 
be  read  and  admired  as  a  fiction,  but  accepted  with 
caution  as  history. ' ' 

There  have  been  a  few  writers,  indeed,  heretical 
enough  to  break  away  from  the  ranks  and  assert  that 
the  Journal  is  legitimate  history;  but  as  these  have 
merely  asserted  without  proofs,  their  opinions  are 
naturally  passed  over.1  The  general  concensus  is  that 
Defoe  creates  a  realistic  atmosphere,  and  gives  a  cor- 

1  Thus  Mr.  Thomas  Wright  in  his  "Life  of  Defoe"  (1894)  iterates 
and  reiterates  (pp.  98,  230,  235,  294),  "that  the  'Journal'  is 
veritable  history,  there  is  not  the  least  doubt."  In  1872,  Mr. 
E.  W.  Brayley  edited  the  "Journal"  and  supplied  a  great 
number  of  facts  from  contemporaneous  sources  relating  to  the 
Plague;  but  he  made  no  attempt  to  establish  Defoe's  work  as 
history. 

[2] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

rect  impression  of  the  Plague,  but  that  he  cannot 
be  relied  upon  as  an  historian,  that  facts  with  him 
are  but  materials  for  his  imagination,  and  that  an  art- 
ful style  and  inventive  genius  fix  the  Journal  as  a 
work  of  fiction  rather  than  a  narrative  of  historic 
facts.     The   foregoing   quotations   are  sufficient  evi- 
dence of  the  general  belief.     The  simple  truth  is,  how- 
ever, there  is  not  a  single  essential  statement  in  the 
Journal  not  based  on  historic  fact.     Even  the  stories 
ascribed  to  Defoe 's  invention  have  their  origins  in  real 
contemporaneous    events.     Indeed,    one    of    Defoe's 
crowning  achievements  in  compiling  the  Journal  con- 
sisted in  curbing  his  natural  predilection  for  inven- 
tion, and  adhering  to  strict  facts  as  he  found  them 
in  printed  sources  or  got  them  directly  from  the  sur- 
vivors of  1665.     Defoe  himself  asserts  (Introduction 
to  Due  Preparations) — and  there  is  no  sufficient  rea- 
son to  doubt  him — that  he  well  remembered  the  Great 
Plague.     Defoe  was  about  six  in  1665,  and,  besides, 
he  had  a  vast  fund  of  dismal  and  graphic  stories  from 
the  older  survivors  of  the  Plague.     But  here  again  the 
fiction  theorist  bolsters  up  his  hypothesis  with,  "The 
truth  itself  is  not  believed  from  one  who  often  has  de- 
ceived," and  it  is  explained  that  Defoe  warped  and 
exaggerated  actual  conditions  in  order  to  heighten 
the  effects   of  history.     However,  for  one  who  has 
examined  the  sources  of  the  Journal,  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult, indeed,  to  conceive  how  the  actual  horrors  of  the 
Plague  Year  could  be  exaggerated.     It  is  true  there 
are  slips  and  errors  in  the  Journal  (to  be  noted  in  an- 
other connexion),  but  scarcely  one  of  these  is  essential 
to  the  correctness  of  the  narrative  as  a  whole,  and  they 

[3] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

are  almost  invariably  due  to  misinformation  or  haste, 
and  not  to  deliberate  intention.  This  will  more  fully 
appear  when  it  is  understood  that  contemporaneous 
accounts  of  the  Plague  are  not  always  in  absolute 
accord  in  every  detail,  and  that  sometimes  there  are 
positive  errors  recorded.  This  fact  explains  most  of 
Defoe's  errors  in  the  Journal.  In  general,  he  was 
scrupulously  careful  to  avoid  all  appearances  of  mis- 
representation. Indeed,  in  some  instances  where  he 
warns  us  that  he  is  not  vouching  for  the  truthfulness 
of  a  given  statement,  he  is  still  quite  in  harmony  with 
the  facts.  On  the  whole  when  we  consider  the  short 
time  Defoe  must  have  given  himself  to  fling  his 
materials  together — for  so  it  was  really  done,  and  not 
as  the  result  of  a  studied  carelessness,  as  is  sometimes 
supposed — the  Journal  is  remarkably  free  from  errors, 
and  is,  in  the  main,  far  more  authentic  than  many 
another  work  that  passes  for  history.  In  short, 
Defoe's  chief  purpose  in  the  Journal  was  to  give  his- 
toric facts,  and  his  deviations  from  actual  facts  are 
comparatively  few  and  unimportant. 

The  failure  of  editors  and  commentators  to  recog- 
nize this  truth,  or,  possibly  their  want  of  curiosity, 
has  led  them  into  strange  absurdities.  Following  one 
another  in  the  assumption  that  the  Journal  is  mainly 
fiction,  they  have  been  compelled,  like  mediaeval 
theologians,  to  bolster  up  their  hypothesis  by  further 
assumptions.  Thus,  it  is  argued,  there  must  have 
been  an  incentive  and  a  motive,  other  than  a  desire  to 
write  history,  in  composing  the  Journal.  Naturally, 
the  incentive  was  a  commercial  one.  And  the  motive  ? 
Well,    in    1720,   Marseilles   was   visited   by   a   most 

[4] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

devastating  Plague  which  swept  away  nearly  100,000 
of  her  inhabitants.  London's  terrible  experience  of 
1665  was  still  fresh  in  the  memories  of  many  then 
living,  and,  to  prepare  her  citizens  against  such  an- 
other calamity,  Defoe,  forsooth,  wrote  a  fiction  entitled 
a  Journal  of  the  Plague  Tear,  A  mere  statement  of 
the  theory  proves  its  absurdity.  Besides,  the  Journal 
did  not  appear  for  over  a  year  after  the  Plague  had 
ceased  in  Marseilles.  Moreover,  the  public  had  been 
warned  repeatedly  by  more  than  a  score  of  volumes, 
beginning  with  Dr.  Richard  Mead's  Short  Discourse 
Concerning  Pestilential  Contagion,  prepared  as  the 
result  of  a  Royal  Order,  in  1720,  as  soon  as  the  report 
of  the  Marseilles  Plague  reached  England.  Owing  to 
Mead's  contention  that  pestilence  is  a  contagious  dis- 
ease, a  perfect  shower  of  controversial  books  and 
pamphlets  on  the  subject  was  cast  upon  the  public. 
That  the  intense  interest  aroused  by  the  Marseilles 
Plague  suggested  the  Journal  there  is  not  the  slightest 
doubt,  and  it  is  no  less  certain  that  the  motive  sug- 
gested above  for  writing  it  is  not  the  true  one,  for  not 
only  had  that  warning  and  preparation  been  given  by 
others,  admittedly  more  capable  than  Defoe  for  such 
a  task,  and  that  too  in  1720,  but  also,  Defoe  would 
hardly  have  waited  to  publish  a  half-dozen  other  books 
before  writing  the  Journal  had  he  looked  upon  the  lat- 
ter as  a  humanitarian  duty  he  was  called  upon  to  per- 
form. Even  his  Due  Preparations  for  the  Plague 
could  have  had  little  direct  relation  to  the  Marseilles 
Plague,  for  the  reason  just  stated,  although  it  was 
avowedly  written  for  the  enlightenment  of  people  of 
all  classes,  as  to  how  to  escape  the  distemper  in  case  it 

[5] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

should  again  visit  England.  The  simplicity  and 
directness  of  the  latter  book  compared  with  the 
heterogeneous  character  of  the  Journal  would  also 
indicate  the  purpose  of  the  Due  Preparations.  Aside 
from  this  consideration,  it  is  very  probable  that  the 
last-mentioned  book  was  an  aftermath  of  the  Journal 
— common  practice  with  Defoe — and  also  that  it  was 
intended  to  supply  practical,  simple  advice  to  the 
people,  in  place  of  the  confused,  contradictory,  and 
unintelligible  muddle  of  directions  that  were  foisted 
upon  the  public  as  a  result  of  the  controversy  over 
Dr.  Mead's  book.  If  the  Journal  had  been  written 
with  a  similar  motive,  then  all  the  statistics,  relation 
of  the  progress  of  the  distemper,  most  of  the  stories, 
descriptions  of  the  appearance  of  the  town,  domestic 
and  foreign  trade,  in  fact  everything  in  the  book  ex- 
cept those  moralizing  passages  concerning  the  treat- 
ment and  care  of  the  diseased,  in  case  the  Plague 
should  ever  again  visit  England,  would  have  been 
omitted  and  practical  advice  substituted.  In  other 
words,  the  materials  and  their  treatment  in  the  Journal 
are  historical,  those  of  Due  Preparations  admonitory. 
In  fact,  such  advice  as  does  appear  in  the  Journal, 
given  as  if  original  with  Defoe  (hence  lending  a 
fictional  tint  to  the  narrative),  is  borrowed  directly 
from  his  sources,  Hodges,  Kemp,  Sydenham,  Diemer- 
broeck,  Mead,  etc. 

The  mention  of  Dr.  Mead  makes  it  necessary  to 
revert  to  the  oft-quoted  assertion  that  he  was  deceived 
by  Defoe  whom  he  quoted  as  authority  on  the  Plague. 
The  absurdity  of  this  myth  will  appear  at  once  when 
it  is  pointed  out  that,  in  the  first  place,  Defoe  and 

[6] 


OF  THE  PLAGUE  YEAR 

Mead  were  contemporaries  (Mead  was  born  in  1673) 
and  the  latter  would  scarcely  be  taken  in  regarding 
events  that  happened  so  near  his  own  time ;  and,  sec- 
ondly,  Mead  was  himself  an  eminent  specialist   in 
pestilential  diseases,  and  when  he  was  appointed  in 
1720  (as  already  mentioned)  to  prepare  a  treatise  to 
assist  in  warding  off  the  Marseilles  distemper,  he  made 
a  searching  study  of  the  history  of  plague  and  of  its 
treatment.     That  he  should  have  been  ignorant  of  the 
matters  treated  of  by  Defoe  in  the  Journal  is  incon- 
ceivable.    Nay,  not  only  did  he  have  a  much  broader 
knowledge  of  the  subject  than  did  Defoe,  but  instead 
of  the  latter  furnishing  him  with  facts  concerning  the 
Plague  of  1665,  the  very  reverse  is  true.     One  of  the 
amusing  things  about  it  all  is,  that  Mead's  Discourse 
Concerning  the  Plague  went  through  eight  editions 
before  Defoe's  Journal  appeared.     It  is  hardly  neces- 
sary to  point  out   (except  to  future  editors  of  the 
Journal)  that  Mead  in  none  of  these  eight  editions 
could  have  borrowed  from  the  Journal.    However,  in 
1744,  Dr.  Mead  revised  his  book  on  the  Plague,  when 
he  referred,  on  one  page  only  (p.  106)  to  the  Journal. 
This  was  in  connection  with  the  evil  effects  of  shutting 
up  victims  of  the  distemper,  a  practice  which  led  some 
in  their  delirium  to  break  out  of  their  prisons  to  seek 
refuge  with  their  friends  in  the  country,  or  build  huts 
and  tents  for  themselves  in  the  open  fields,  or  get  on 
board  ships  in  the  river,  or  voluntarily  shut  them- 
selves up  in  self-defence. 

Now,  assuming  that  all  this  were  mere  fiction  (an 
assumption  impossible  from  the  nature  of  the  disease 
and  of  humanity),  it  would  not,  in  the  first  place, 

£7] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

be  such  a  tremendous  feat  of  the  imagination;  and, 
secondly,  seeing  that  it  is  but  a  single  instance,  one 
would  hardly  be  justified  in  asserting  that  Dr.  Mead 
had  been  very  greatly  taken  in.  The  whole  assump- 
tion, however,  falls  to  the  ground  when  it  is  known 
that  every  word  of  the  passage  in  question  is  true,  and 
common  to  the  history  of  all  plagues.  Diemerbroeck 
(de  Peste,  p.  120,  a  copy  of  which  Defoe  possessed) 
asserts  that  he  personally  knew  "that  in  many  places 
the  sick  have  chose  to  lay  themselves  in  fields,  in  the 
open  air,  under  the  slightest  coverings,"  rather  than 
submit  to  the  restraint  and  cruelties  of  nurses.  Mead 
also  quoted  this  passage  in  his  eighth  edition  of  the 
Discourse  (p.  xviii).  In  the  last-mentioned  work 
(p.  xxxii)  it  is  related  that,  during  the  Plague  in  Ger- 
many in  1712rl3,  three  men  shut  up  in  Hamburgh 
escaped,  took  refuge  in  a  barn  in  the  country,  where 
they  were  all  found  dead,  when  the  barn  and  corpses 
were  burned  together.  Incidentally,  it  may  be  men- 
tioned that  this  case  may  have  suggested  to  Defoe  the 
story  of  the  soldier,  sailor,  and  joiner.  That  this  was 
the  manner  in  which  the  disease  was  scattered  broad- 
cast over  the  kingdom  is  supported  by  all  the  sources. 
Voluntary  shutting  up  was  also  common,  Dr.  Burnett 
being  a  case  in  point  (Pepys,  Diary  11  June,  1665). 

Thus  far  it  would  appear  that  Defoe  was  more 
indebted  to  Mead  than  the  other  way  about, — and  this 
takes  no  account  of  the  treatment  of  the  distemper. 
But  it  is  not  necessary  even  to  suppose  that  Defoe 
was,  in  this  instance,  a  borrower  from  Dr.  Mead 
(although  in  Due  Preparations  we  know  that  he  did 
use  the  latter 's  work)  :  we  may  come  nearer  home  for 

[8] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

a  genuine  source.  In  Newes  No.  83,  there  is  a  letter 
from  Durham,  dated  13  October,  1665,  which  reads 
as  follows:  ''The  contagion  in  this  country,  which 
was  brought  hither  about  three  months  since  by  cer- 
tain passengers  from  London  and  Yarmouth,  is  now 
by  the  favour  of  God  very  much  asswaged :  Sunder- 
land (to  which  place  it  was  first  of  all  brought)  being 
now  perfectly  well,  and  the  other  infected  places  in  a 
very  hopeful  condition.  The  sick  persons  are  all  of 
them  removed  out  of  town  into  huts  built  in  the  fields 
at  a  convenient  distance  for  that  purpose."  To  be 
sure,  this  does  not  quite  satisfy  the  case,  as  here  there 
is  no  suggestion  of  breaking  out  of  shut  up  houses ;  but 
in  the  same  "newsbook,"  No.  79,  is  a  letter  from  Dor- 
chester bearing  date  of  23  September,  1665,  in  which  it 
was  reported  that  a  man  escaped  from  London  and 
"died  within  a  mile  of  this  town,  after  four  days'  sick- 
ness, and  supposed  to  be  of  the  Plague ;  but  the  hovell 
wherein  he  lay  being  boarded  over  and  under,  a  pit 
was  digged,  and  both  hovel  and  corpse  were  buried 
together. ' '  One  of  the  most  striking  proofs  of  Plague 
victims  breaking  out  of  shut-up  houses  and  running 
into  the  country,  occurs  in  a  pamphlet  entitled  The 
Shutting  Up  of  Infected  Houses,  etc.  (1665),  wherein 
it  is  asserted  that  sometimes  those  who  are  shut  up 
break  out  and  ' '  run  as  far  in  City  and  country  as  our 
feet  can  carry  us,  .  .  .  till  at  last  we  drop  in  some  alley, 
field,  or  neighbour  village."  As  this  whole  matter 
will  be  entered  into  fully  elsewhere  in  this  essay,  it 
need  only  be  remarked  here  that  the  evidence  is 
abundant  to  establish  from  other  sources  every  Item  in 

[9] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

the  passage  in  Mead's  Discourse  which  is  referred  to 
the  Journal  as  authority. 

It  is  further  to  be  observed  that  Defoe  himself 
tells  us  in  the  Journal  that  "  it  is  much  to  the  satisfac- 
tion of  me  that  write,  ...  to  be  able  to  say  that  every- 
thing is  set  down  with  moderation,  and  rather  within 
compass  than  beyond  it " ;  and  of  the  several  stories  he 
relates  he  asserts  a  very  truth  when  he  says  that  there 
are  "divers  parallel  stories  to  be  met  with  of  the  same 
kind."  The  force  of  this  truth  will  more  definitely 
appear  in  the  course  of  this  survey.  In  like  manner, 
in  Due  Preparations  (1722,  Introduction,  pp.  x,  xi)  he 
assures  us  that  his  purpose  is  to  keep  near  the  facts, 
and,  moreover,  he  informs  us  of  his  method.  "To 
make  this  discourse  familiar  and  agreeable  to  every 
reader,"  he  says,  "I  have  endeavoured  to  make  it  as 
historical  as  I  could,  and  have  therefore  intermingled 
it  with  some  accounts  of  fact,  where  I  could  come  at 
them,  and  some  by  report,  .  .  .  The  cases  I  have  stated 
here,  are  suited  with  the  utmost  care  to  the  circum- 
stances past,  and  more  especially  as  they  are  reason- 
ably supposed  to  suit  those  to  come;  and  as  I  very 
particularly  remember  the  last  visitation  of  this  kind, 
which  afflicted  this  nation  in  1665,  and  have  had  occa- 
sion to  converse  with  many  other  persons  who  lived  in 
this  city  all  the  while,  I  have  chosen  some  of  their 
cases  as  precedents  for  our  present  instructions.  I 
take  leave  so  far  to  personate  the  particular  persons  in 
their  histories,  as  is  needful  in  the  case  in  hand,  with- 
out making  use  of  their  names,  though  in  many  cases 
I  could  have  descended  to  the  very  names  and  par- 
ticulars of  the  persons  themselves."    In  these  two 

[10] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE    YEAR 

quotations,  the  one  from  the  Journal,  the  other  from 
Due  Preparations,  we  are  presented  with  the  true  ex- 
planation of  the  purposes  and  methods  in  the  two 
books  respectively:  both  are  based  on  authentic  facts, 
in  one  case  "set  down  with  moderation,  and  rather 
within  compass  than  beyond  it,"  and  in  the  other, 
"suited  with  the  utmost  care  to  the  circumstances 
past,  and  more  especially  as  they  are  reasonably  sup- 
posed to  suit  those  to  come."  In  other  words,  Defoe 
took  two  simple  historic  facts,  the  one  of  a  man  who 
saved  himself  and  family  by  shutting  themselves  up 
before  the  Plague  got  into  their  neighbourhood,  the 
other  of  a  family  who  fled  from  the  distemper,  got 
aboard  a  ship,  and  thus  escaped.  Both  of  these  in- 
stances appear  in  the  Journal,  intermingled  with  other 
incidents  and  episodes  of  the  Plague  Year.  In  Due 
Preparations,  Defoe  simply  isolated  these  two  com- 
mon devices  for  escaping  the  Plague  and,  applying  the 
method  employed  in  Robinson  Crusoe,  elaborated  and 
developed  them  into  practical  instructions.  Due 
Preparations  is  thus  much  closer  to  fiction  in  method 
and  style  of  narration  than  is  the  Journal,  for  only  in 
one  instance  in  the  latter  is  there  anything  that  ap- 
proaches fiction,  namely,  the  story  of  the  soldier,  sailor 
and  joiner,  and  even  here  the  several  parts  of  the  story 
are  quite  true;  it  is  only  the  manner  of  combining 
them  into  a  coherent  narrative  that  suggests  the  fic- 
tional element.  Other  tricks  of  style  and  manner  em- 
ployed in  the  Journal  that  have  deceived  many  into 
the  belief  that  the  materials  themselves  came  out  of 
Defoe's  imagination,  I  shall  discuss  more  fully  in  an- 
other section. 

[ii] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

Turning  to  the  second  point  in  Defoe's  Introduc- 
tion to  Due  Preparations,  viz.,  his  "  personation "  of 
the  characters  he  mentions  therein,  the  same  is  true  in 
a  few  cases  in  the  Journal.  Whenever  the  mention  of 
an  historic  name  would  redound  to  the  credit  of  the 
original,  he  did  not  scruple  to  use  it.  Thus,  he 
enumerates  four  famous  physicians  who  braved  the 
perils  of  the  Plague  and  remained  in  town  to  assist  in 
administering  to  the  poor  stricken  victims  of  the  in- 
fection. These  were  Drs.  Humphrey  Brookes,  Fran- 
cis Upton,  Nathaniel  Hodges,  and  Peter  Barwick,  all 
honoured  members  of  the  College  of  Physicians,  any 
one,  or  all,  of  whom  Defoe  may  have  known  after  he 
reached  manhood.2  On  the  other  hand,  when  the 
mention  of  a  particular  historic  character  might  cause 
offence,3  or  in  any  way  interfere  with  his  narrative, 
Defoe  probably  made  up  or  borrowed  a  fictitious 
name;  for  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that,  as  Defoe 
himself  informs  us,  there  were  many  yet  alive  in  1722 
who  could  verify  and  parallel  all,  and  many  more,  of 
his  stories.  .And  is  it  not  a  significant  fact  that  in  an 
age  when  every  public  statement  was  pounced  upon 

2  Defoe    might    have    mentioned    many    other    brave    physicians    who 

offered  themselves  to  the  public  service  during  the  Plague,  as 
Drs.  Dey,  Starkey,  Orover,  O'Dowd,  Burnett,  Davis,  Thompson, 
D'Autry  and  Boghurst.  The  first  five  of  these  were  martyrs 
to  the  distemper;  Dr.  William  Boghurst  recorded  his  very 
valuable  observations  in  "Loimographia"  (1666,  but  not  printed 
until  1894  by  the  Epedemiological  Society,  ed.  Dr.  J.  P.  Payne)  ; 
Dr.  G-eo.  Thompson  risked  his  life  to  dissect  a  Plague  corpse, 
and  recorded  the  experiment  in  "Loimotomia, "  1666;  Burnett 
was  Pepys's  doctor,  and  it  was  in  his  house  in  Fenchurch  St. 
that  the  Plague  first  appeared  in  the  City  about  the  10th  of 
June.  Ten  weeks  after  his  servant  died  of  the  Plague,  Burnett 
himself  succumbed  to  it.  This  illustrates  the  odd  freaks  of  the 
disease  mentioned  by  Defoe.  Burnett  was  one  of  those  who 
voluntarily  shut  himself  up.  See  Pepys,  "Diary,"  June  10, 
11,  Aug.  25,  1665. 

3  Strikingly    exemplified    in    the    case    of    the    merchant    who    hanged 

himself   in   his   delirium. 

[12] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE    YEAR 

and  mauled  by  every  controversialist,  no  one,  not  even 
the  survivors  of  1665,  seems  to  have  doubted  the  au- 
thenticity of  the  Journal?*     This  matter  of  the  fic- 
titious names  in  Defoe's  account  of  the  Plague  has 
been  one  of  the  sure  evidences  to  commentators,  of  the 
fictitious  nature  of  the  Journal.     Thus,  they  can  find 
no  Dr.  Heath  on  record :   ergo,  he  is  a  product  of  De- 
foe's  genius.     As  a  matter  of  very  high  probability, 
Dr.  Heath  was  none  other  than  Dr.  Hodges,  and,  for 
the  reasons  given  above,  Defoe  altered  the  name  to 
Heath.     In  the  hope  of  finding  some  clue  to  the  name 
Heath,   I   sent   for   Goodall's   College  of  Physicians 
(1684),  a  copy  of  which  was  in  Defoe's  library  at  the 
time  of  his  death.     I  opened  the  book  at  random  (p. 
393)  and  by  the  strangest  coincidence  the  first  name 
my  eye  lighted  upon  was  that  of  Sir  Robert  Heath 
(Lord  Chief  Justice  under  Charles  I)  standing  out  in 
capital  letters  to  catch  the  eye.     Much  more  to  the 
purpose  is  the  fact  that  the  characteristics,  including 
the  discussions  of  the  treatment  of  patients,  etc.,  are 
applicable  to  Dr.  Heath  and  Dr.  Hodges  alike.    Also, 
when  it  is  remembered  that  the  latter  is  said  to  have 
suffered  the  same  fate  as  the  man  Defoe  mentions, 
who,   following  the   doctor's   instructions    (identical 
with  Hodges 's  prescription)  to  ward  off  the  pestilence 
by  a  copious  use  of  sack,  got  so  addicted  to  the  habit 
that  he  died  a  toper,  we  are  able  to  appreciate  the  sen- 
timent which  moved  Defoe  to  alter  the  name  in  the 
Journal.     But  this  is  a  trivial  matter  which  in  no 

4  The  continuator  of  Dr.  Gideon  Harvey's  account  of  the  Plague 
under  the  title  of  "City  Remembrances"  (1709)  incorporated 
all  the  leading  features  of  the  "Journal,"  yet  no  one,  I  be- 
lieve,   has    accused    him    of   having   been    taken    in. 

[13] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

sense  detracts  from  the  history  as  such.  I  take  notice 
of  it  merely  to  cover  the  details  of  the  Journal,  and  to 
indicate  Defoe's  probable  motive  in  diverting  his  nar- 
rative from  historic  facts  in  matters  likely  to  wound 
the  feelings  of  those  still  alive  when  the  Journal  was 
written. 

Another  story  that  has  aroused  universal  admira- 
tion of  Defoe's  genius  is  that  of  the  Quaker,  Solomon 
Eagle,  who  ran  about  the  streets  naked,  predicting 
doleful  things  for  London  and  crying,  "Oh  the  great 
and  dreadful  God!"  The  only  questions  to  be  re- 
solved,  concerning  this  story,  are,  did  people  go  about 
the  streets  naked,  were  Quakers  particularly  pessimis- 
tic in  their  prophecies,  and  was  there  a  genuine  his- 
torical character  who  might  have  furnished  Defoe 
with  a  prototype?  That  people  did  go  about  naked 
we  know  from  Thucydides,  Vincent,  and  others;  but 
they  were  usually  frenzied  victims  of  the  pest.  As  for 
crepe-hanging  prophets,  they  are  common  in  all  ages. 
Josephus  's  fanatic  was  one  when  he  ran  about  wailing, 
"Woe,  woe  to  Jerusalem,"  before  the  destruction  of 
that  city  by  Titus.  But  we  do  not  have  to  resort  to 
ancient  history  or  to  generalities  to  account  for  Solo- 
mon Eagle.  There  was  the  flesh-and-blood  John  Gib- 
son who  might  have  done  very  well  indeed  for  a  model. 
He  was  a  noted  Quaker  prognosticator  of  evil  things, 
who  lived  during  the  middle  of  the  17th  century,  and, 
like  Solomon  Eagle,  went  about  interpreting  his  "vi- 
sions, ' '  preaching  his  * '  antient  of  dayes  to  come, ' '  and 
warning  the  people  of  Europe,  "but  more  particularly 
of  England." 

[14] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

More  nearly  parallel  to  the  Solomon  Eagle  story- 
are  certain  events  of  Defoe's  own  times.  The  history 
of  the  troublesome,  prophesying  Quakers  of  the  17th 
century  and  the  early  part  of  the  18th  century  is  well 
known  to  students  of  the  period,  and  Defoe  especially 
had  good  cause  to  remember  the  dissenters  of  that  time 
as  one  of  his  satirical  pamphlets  about  them  got  him 
into  serious  trouble.5  It  may  very  well  be  that  he  had 
in  mind  one  of  these  street-preaching  prophets  when 
he  drew  his  Solomon  Eagle.  For  example,  on  Janu- 
ary 14,  1701,  it  is  related  that, 

"This  Day  a  Man  Quaker  came  to  the  Royal- 
Exchange,  about  Exchange  time,  and  took  his  Post  by 
the  Effigies  of  K.  Charles  2.  where  the  Spirit  mov'd 
him  to  Express  these  Words;  'I  am  sent  by  the  great 
God,  to  Proclaim  his  Summons  to  this  great  City; 
That  in  case  the  Inhabitants  do  not  speedily  Repent  of 
their  Wickedness,  his  Judgments  will  suddenly  fall 
upon  them/  "6 

And  again,  a  fortnight  later,  the  following  news  item 
appeared  in  the  same  paper : 

"London,  Jan.  28,  1701.  This  day  about  3  in 
the  Afternoon,  a  Quaker  Woman  stept  up  upon  a 
great  Stone  at  Fleet-bridge,  and  made  a  speech  there- 

5  "London,    May    23,     [1703].      Mr.    Daniel    de    Foe,    Author    of    The 

Shortest  Way  with  the  Dissenters,  was  taken  on  Thursday  last 
[May  20]  in  a  private  House  in  Spittle-Fields." — "Daily 
Courant."  May  24,  1703. 
"London,  July  31,  [1703].  On  the  29th  Instant  Daniel  Foe, 
alias  de  Foe,  stood  in  the  Pillory  before  the  Royal  Exchange 
in  Cornhill,  as  he  did  yesterday  near  the  Conduit  in  Cheap- 
side,  and  this  day  at  Temple  Bar,  in  pursuance  of  the  Sen- 
tence given  against  him  at  the  last  Session  of  the  Old-Bailey, 
for  Writing  and  Publishing  a  Seditious  Libel,  Entituled,  The 
Shortest  Way  with  the  Dissenters;  By  which  Sentence  he  is 
also  fined  200  Marks,  to  find  Sureties  for  his  good  behaviour 
for  7  years,  and  to  remain  in  Prison  till  all  be  performed." — 
"London   Gazette,"    August   2,    1703. 

6  "London    Post,"    January    15,    1700     (O.    S.) 

[15] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

at,  denouncing  Woe  to  this  City,  if  the  Inhabitants  do 
not  speedily  Repent."7 

I  mention  these  few  cases  (which  may  be  multiplied 
at  will)  to  prove  the  abundance  of  the  materials  which 
Defoe  might  have  drawn  upon.  That  a  genuine  orig- 
inal supplied  him  with  his  Solomon  Eagle  is  certain, 
and  this  is  equally  true  of  the  story  of  the  Whitechapel 
clergyman  who  went  about  repeating  the  liturgy. 

Of  a  somewhat  different  nature  is  the  circum- 
stance related  in  the  Journal  of  the  blind  piper,  who, 
while  overcome  with  drink,  was  picked  up  and  thrown 
into  the  dead  cart  along  with  the  corpses  to  be  dumped 
into  the  pit.  At  first  glance  the  whole  thing  is  so 
bizarre  that  we  are  tempted  to  brand  it  as  fiction  of  the 
grimmest  sort.  Yet  a  little  industry  rewards  us  with 
a  genuine  parallel.  In  William  Austin's  Anatomy  of 
the  Pestilence  in  1665  (p.  38),  which,  by  the  way,  con- 
tains numerous  other  parallels  to  the  Journal,  we  read 
in  connection  with  the  burial  of  the  dead: 

Wisely  they  leave  graves  open  to  the  dead 
'Cause  some  too  early  there  are  brought  to  bed. 

One  out  of  trance  return 'd,  after  much  strife 
Among  a  troup  of  dead,  exclaims  for  life. 

Nor  need  the  story  related  by  Defoe  of  the  demented 
man  who  thought  he  saw  a  ghost  in  Bishopsgate 
Churchyard  cause  great  wonder  or  admiration.  Any 
community  in  any  age  will  supply  many  more  fetching 
ghost  stories  than  the  one  reproduced  by  Defoe.     The 

7  "London  Post,"  January  29,  1701. 

[16] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

subject  was  one  that  appealed  to  him,  and  his  own 
library  contained  any  number  of  examples,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  wierd  stories  then,  as  always,  current. 
Besides,  hallucination  is  one  of  the  leading  symptoms 
of  plague.  George  Withers,  the  poet,  who  won  great 
distinction  by  remaining  in  London  throughout  the 
Plague  of  1625  and  also  that  of  1665,  recorded  his  ex- 
periences and  observations  of  the  former  in  a  large 
tome  (in  verse)  entitled  Britain's  Remembrancer.  In 
this  there  are  literally  dozens  of  parallel  descriptions 
and  stories  to  those  in  the  Journal,  and  in  this  con- 
nection particularly  a  man  who,  in  delirium,  fancied 
he  saw  Death  prowling  about, 

.  .  .  now  by  the  bed, 
He  stands,  now  at  the  foot,  now  at  the  Head. 

He  acted  with  a  look  so  tragical 

That  all  bystanders  might  have  thought  his  eyes 

Saw  real  objects,  and  no  fantasies. 

Then  there  is  the  story  in  the  Journal  of  the  man 
who  could  detect  the  presence  of  an  infected  person  by 
the  smarting  of  a  wound  on  his  leg,  when  he  would 
rise  up,  if  in  company,  and  say,  "Friends,  here  is 
somebody  in  the  room  that  has  the  plague,"  although 
there  were  no  outward  symptoms  of  it.  This  looks 
and  sounds  very  much  like  invention  on  Defoe's  part, 
but  it  is  nothing  of  the  kind,  any  more  than  the  other 
stories  in  the  Journal  accredited  to  his  genius.  In  a 
letter  dated  October  12,  1670,  J.  Beale  wrote  to  the 
Hon.  R.  Boyle  (Works,  ed.  1772,  VI,  429),  that  a  per- 

[17] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

son  ' '  whom  for  many  years  I  have  known  to  be  credit- 
able, [told  me]  that  he  knew  a  good  old  woman,  aged 
near  eighty,  now  deceased,  who  said  often  in  his 
hearing,  that  she  could  know,  if  the  plague  were 
within  thirty  miles  of  her,  by  a  pain  she  had  in  three 
plague  sores,  which  sores  she  had  in  her  younger  days, 
before  she  was  married."  Certainly  in  this  instance 
Defoe  kept  rather  "within  compass  than  beyond  it." 
And  here  it  should  be  observed  that  Defoe  has  been 
criticised  for  asserting  that  plague  victims  went  about 
with  the  infection  upon  them,  yet  not  be  aware  of  it 
themselves  "till  they  had  the  very  tokens  come  out 
upon  them,  .  .  .  and  would  die  in  an  hour  or  two  after 
they  came  home,  but  be  well  as  long  as  they  were 
abroad."  This  criticism  (and,  indeed,  most  of  the 
criticism  of  the  Journal,  is  based  entirely  on  probabil- 
ity. An  examination  of  the  sources  again  justifies 
Defoe's  claim  to  "moderation."  On  September  20, 
1665,  John  Allin  (preacher-chemist-astrologer),  who 
remained  in  London  throughout  the  Plague,  wrote  to 
his  friend,  Philip  Fryth :  "  If  the  infection  be  received 
by  the  halitus,  or  breath,  it  now  immediately  afflicts 
the  hearte,  ye  root  of  the  vitall  spirits,  and  some  time 
kills  before  any  external  and  generally  believed  symp- 
tomes  of  that  distemper  can  appeare,  either  spotts  or 
tumors,  but  allways  invades  ye  party  with  sudden  and 
sharp e  fainting  fitts."8  Kemp  gives  testimony  to  the 
same  effect  when  he  quotes  Benedictus  as  authority  for 
the  statement  that  plague  victims  sometimes  "whilst 
they  have  been  employed  about  their  business  in  the 
house,  their  trading  in  the  market,  their  devotions  in 

8  "ArchEelogia,"   XXXVII,   12. 

[18] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE    YEAR 

the  church,  have  died  suddenly,  and  sundry  other 
physicians  relate  the  like,  and  perhaps  hath  or  might 
have  been  observed  at  London."9  The  same  author 
also  gives  his  testimony  that  ' '  as  the  Plague  is  propa- 
gated by  contagion,  so  likewise  it  is  spread  by  fear  and 
imagination.  .  .  .  There  be  stories  that  make  the  rela 
tion  of  some  that  did  but  see  one  infected  with  the 
Plague,  and  of  some  that  did  but  behold  afar  off  a 
corpse  going  to  be  buried ;  of  others,  who  being  in  the 
house,  did  not  hear  the  buriers,  and  presently  after 
have  sought  the  sickness,  and  died  of  the  Plague  them- 
selves."10 Hodges,  Vincent,  and  many  others  bear 
witness  to  this  fact  which  recurs  a  number  of  times 
in  the  Journal. 

The  various  stories  of  infected  persons  breaking 
out  while  insane  from  their  sufferings,  and  often  doing 
violence  upon  themselves  or  others,  are  all  quite  true 
and  will  be  considered  presently.  The  story  of  the 
waterman  who  was  compelled  to  ply  his  vocation  in 
order  to  earn  a  livelihood  for  his  wife  and  child, 
though  afraid  to  go  near  them  for  fear  of  carrying 
the  distemper  to  them,  and  so  deposited  his  earnings 
on  a  large  stone  where  they  might  come  out  and  get 
them,  has  the  ring  of  reality  about  it.  In  like  man- 
ner, Dr.  Symon  Patrick's  clerk  removed  himself  from 
his  family,  although  in  his  case  he  did  it  to  protect 
himself  from  those  of  his  household  who  were 
visited.11  It  is  only  in  the  story  of  the  three  friends 
who  escaped  into  the  country  and  lived  in  a  tent  that 
Defoe  abandons  himself  to  the  methods  of  fiction ;  but, 

8  Kemp.      "Brief    Treatise,"    p.    3. 

10  lb.   p.   22. 

ii  Add.  MSS.,  5810. 

[19] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

as  already  pointed  out,  all  the  details  of  the  story  es- 
sential to  the  history  of  the  Plague  are  in  accord  with 
known  facts :  people  did  escape  and  live  in  tents  and 
huts,  and  the  country  folk  were  chary  of  them. 

The  feature  of  the  history  of  the  Plague  relating 
to  the  breaking  out  of  victims  from  shut-up  houses, 
and  in  some  cases  the  escape  of  people  before  their 
houses  were  shut  up,  they  running  into  the  country 
with  the  infection  upon  them,  thus  polluting  places 
hitherto  free  from  the  contagion,  occupies  a  most  im- 
portant place  in  the  Journal,  involving  at  least  one- 
seventh  of  its  entire  contents,  albeit  there  are  many 
useless  repetitions.  The  arguments  for  and  against 
shutting  up  were  taken  by  Defoe  directly  from 
Hodges 's  "  Historical  Account  of  the  Plague  of 
1665 ; ' '  and  other  sources  are  numerous.  So,  also,  the 
stories  repeated  by  Defoe  to  illustrate  the  plain  facts 
have  numerous  origins  and  parallels.  Some  of  these 
have  already  been  mentioned  in  other  connections. 
The  author  of  Shutting  Up  Infected  Houses  as  it  is 
practised  in  England  (1665)  gives  us  an  appalling  ac- 
count of  the  evils  arising  from  shutting  up.  "As  soon 
as  we  find  ourselves  or  any  member  of  our  families  in- 
fected, ' '  he  says,  ' '  so  dreadful  is  it  to  us  to  be  shut  up 
from  all  comfort  and  society,  from  free  and  wholesome 
air,  from  the  care  of  the  physician  and  divine,  from 
the  oversight  of  friends  and  relations,  and  sometimes 
from  the  very  necessities  and  conveniences  of  nature, 
that  we  run  as  far  in  city  and  country  as  our  feet  can 
carry  us,  leaving  wives  and  children  to  the  parishes, 
empty  walls  and  shops  to  creditors,  scattering  the  in- 
fection along  the  streets  as  we  go,  and  shifting  it  from 

[20] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

lodging  to  lodging  with  ourselves,  till  at  last  we  drop 
in  some  alley,  field  or  neighbour  village,  calling  the 
people  round  about  by  the  suddenness  of  our  fall  to 
stand  awhile  astonished  at  our  deaths,  and  then  take 
their  own;  each  fearful  man  of  us  frighted  from  his 
own  house,  killing  his  own  town  by  surprising  them 
unprepared.  .  .  . 

' '  See,  see,  we  infect  not  our  next  neighbours,  and 
this  sickness  spreads  not  much  in  any  one  place,  but 
we  carry  it  from  place  to  place,  running  from  our 
homes  as  from  places  of  torment,  and  thus  the  roads 
are  visited,  and  men  travel  the  same  way  to  the  coun- 
try, and  to  their  long  home.  Thus  the  contagion  hath 
reached  most  places  round  the  city,  which  is  now  as  it 
were  besieged  with  the  judgment,  and  encompassed 
with  the  visitation  and  desolation."  And  the  author 
of  Golgotha  (p.  12)  says  of  the  evil  of  shutting  up  that 
"many  for  fear  thereof  do  hide  their  sores,  and,  after 
a  sweat  or  two,  their  sickness  also,  and  go  daily  about 
their  business  as  long  as  they  can  stand,  mingled  to 
much  more  danger  every  way.  Nor  dare  any  do  the 
office  of  a  nurse  or  friend  to  those  shut  up  .  .  .  because 
it  is  so  penal  that  they  must  be  inclosed  then  them- 
selves. ' ' 

It  was  in  the  manner  of  the  foregoing  examples 
that  Islington  received  the  infection,  as  related  by 
Defoe  in  the  story  of  the  man  who  died  at  the  ' '  Pied 
Bull."  Leafing  over  the  "news books"  of  1665,  we 
find  any  number  of  similar  stories.  To  take  one  in- 
stance, in  a  letter  from  Portsmouth,  dated  September 
3,  1665,  we  are  informed  that  the  Plague  had  got 
over    to    Newport — isolated    as    that    town    was— 

[21] 


HISTORICAL   SOUECES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

"brought  over  by  a  certain  knight  who  had  an  estate 
there,  and  sickened  and  died  at  his  lodgings ;  the  mas- 
ter of  the  house  thought  it  quinsy,  and  threatened  the 
mayor  for  shutting  up  the  house,  but  two  women  took 
the  infection,  and  died  from  merely  changing  and  air- 
ing the  sheets  of  the  bed;  the  poor  gentleman  was 
obliged  to  bury  the  bodies  himself  in  his  own  garden ; 
sheep  and  goats  since  put  in  the  house  are  all  dead." 
Again,  in  a  letter  from  Coventry,  October  15,  1665,  we 
read:  "We  were  very  much  afraid  of  the  sickness  at 
Litchfield,  and  it  is  true  that  a  disorderly  fellow  enter- 
tained an  infected  person  in  an  ale-house  in  the  sub- 
urbs: whereupon  the  master  of  the  house  died."  In 
Defoe 's  story  it  was  the  maid  who  showed  the  traveler 
to  his  room  who  "fell  presently  ill."  But  the 
resemblances  between  all  these  stories  are  so  unmis- 
takable that  historical  accuracy  is  assured.  Well 
might  the  country  places  be  suspicious  of  people  from 
London ! 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  Plague,  as  related  by  the 
contemporaries,  and  repeated  by  Defoe,  only,  or 
mainly,  those  who  were  financially  able  to  run  away 
from  the  distemper  left  town ;  but  as  the  enormity  of 
the  disease  became  more  and  more  apparent,  those 
who  had  at  first  hesitated  to  go,  got  away  whenever 
possible.  By  this  time  the  Plague  was  approaching 
its  height,  and  hence  travelers  from  London  were  the 
more  feared.  The  country  magistrates  were  put  to 
their  wits'  ends  to  prevent  strangers  entering  their 
precincts.  Commercial  interests,  however,  and 
forged  certificates  of  health  made  it  possible  for  many 
to  go  from  place  to  place ;  and  the  mere  desperation  of 

[22] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

shut-up  victims,  as  related  by  the  author  of  Shutting 
up,  made  it  impossible  to  guard  successfully  against 
the  ultimate  spread  of  the  disease.  Nevertheless,  the 
whole  country  was  so  alarmed,  the  vigilance  of  the 
authorities  so  alert,  that  a  fairly  rigid  quarantine  was 
established  in  most  places  until  after  the  Plague  ap- 
proached its  climax  in  London.  The  experience  of  De- 
foe's three  heroes  is  typical  of  what  happened  to  most 
travelers  during  that  frightful  year.  By  the  end  of 
June,  1665,  every  one  knew  that  the  Plague  was  rap- 
idly getting  beyond  control,  and  those  who  were  able  to 
do  so  had  left  town  or  were  preparing  to  leave.  Pepys  's 
entry  for  June  29  depicts  the  situation  very  tersely : 
1 '  Up  and  by  water  to  White  Hall,  where  the  Court  full 
of  waggons  and  people  ready  to  go  out  of  towne.  .  .  . 
This  end  of  the  towne  grows  every  day  very  bad  of 
the  plague.  The  Mortality  Bill  has  come  to  267." 
The  " great  orbs,"  as  Vincent  calls  the  aristocracy, 
went  first  of  course, — many  even  long  before  the  Court 
fled,  for  it  was  not  until  July  2  that  Charles  II  and 
his  retinue  went  to  Hampton  Court  (the  Queen 
Mother  left  for  France  on  June  26) ;  but  the  general 
exodus  had  begun  before  the  middle  of  June,  and  a 
few  had  taken  the  alarm  and  gone  when  the  Bills  end- 
ing June  6  showed  an  increase  from  17  to  43  of  the 
Plague;  and  when,  the  following  week,  112  deaths 
from  the  distemper  were  reported,  the  real  panic  be- 
gan, as  recorded  by  Defoe.  This  was  reflected  the  fol- 
lowing day  (June  14)  when  a  royal  Proclamation  was 
issued  forbidding  the  holding  of  the  annual  Fair 
at  Barnwell,  near  Cambridge, — the  first  of  many  simi- 
lar prohibitions.     The  country  towns  at  once  began 

[23] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

to  erect  barriers  against  travelers  from  the  metropolis : 
a  clean  bill  of  health  was  required  of  all  strangers, 
especially  from  London,  but,  as  already  observed,  this 
means  of  protection  had  to  be  abandoned  soon  for 
more  drastic  methods.12  Among  the  first  towns  to 
take  due  precautions  was  (by  the  irony  of  fate,  as  it 
was  later  most  heavily  visited)  Ipswich.  On  July  11, 
1665,  its  correspondent  to  the  Newes  (No.  54)  re- 
ported that  the  place  was  in  good  health,  ' '  and  there 
is  great  care  and  industry  used  to  keep  it  so,  no 
stranger  being  permitted  to  enter  without  examina- 
tions and  good  Certificates."  The  officials  of  Ipswich 
did  not  then  know  how  easy  it  was  to  secure  "good 
Certificates. ' ' 

The  precautions  taken  by  the  Guildford  authori- 
ties are  worth  repeating  as  they  are  fairly  representa- 
tive of  the  action  taken  by  most  of  the  country  towns 
to  prevent  the  Plague  from  visiting  them :  ' '  As  it  hath 
pleased  God  hitherto  to  preserve  this  place  and  the 
neighbourhood  in  a  happy  condition  of  health ;  so  it  is 
the  singular  care  of  the  magistrates  to  provide  (as 
much  as  may  be)  for  the  continuance  thereof ;  to  which 
end  Justices  of  the  Peace  of  County  of  Surrey  have  di- 
rected an  Order  of  Sessions,  bearing  date  the  11th, 
instant,  [July,  1665] ,  to  the  lord  of  the  Manor  of  Ebis- 
ham,  desiring  him  to  cause  the  wells  to  be  locked  up 

12  "Whereas  several  Certificates  have  been  made  by  others  as  from 
the  Officers  of  St.  Gregory's  Parish  by  St.  Paul's,  London: 
This  is  to  notify  that  the  Officers  of  the  said  Parish  will  not 
certify  any  to  be  clear  of  the  Plague  but  whom  they  know,  and 
that  from  the  8th  of  this  instant  [July  1665],  they  will  sub- 
scribe to  no  Certificates  but  what  are  printed." — "Intelli- 
gencer,'' No.  53 — There  are  many  other  advertisements  like 
this  one,  and  they  all  clearly  indicate  that  forged  certificates 
were  common.  Unfortunately,  the  deceit  was  not  discovered  in 
time,  and  it  may  easily  be  understood  how  suspicious  the  magis- 
trates became,  even  of  those  bearing  certificates.  The  story 
of    Defoe's    three    heroes    should    be    read    in    tills    light. 

[24] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

during  these  infectious  times,  and  to  secure  the  same 
by  a  constant  watch,  for  fear  of  any  resort  thither 
from  infectious  places:  which  said  Order  was  upon 
Monday  last  put  into  execution,  with  a  restraint  upon 
the  inhabitants,  neither  to  receive  any  lodgers  into 
their  houses,  nor  to  admit  any  coaches  or  waggons 
with  goods  or  passengers  from  infected  places.  Which 
Order  was  not  resolved  upon  without  great  reluctancy, 
considering  the  damages  of  particulars  which  must 
necessarily  attend  it."13  Vincent,  in  God's  Terrible 
Voice  in  the  City,  calls  attention  to  the  quarantine 
established  in  the  country  towns :  ' '  Now  the  countries 
[i.  e.  country  towns]  keep  guards,  lest  infectious  per- 
sons from  the  City  bring  the  disease  unto  them;"  and 
the  Sancroft  Correspondence  (November  2,  1665) 
speaks  of  the  "unkindnesse  of  country  people  to  Lon- 
doners. ' '  On  July  17,  Pepys  comments,  "Lord !  to  see 
how  all  these  great  people  here  [at  Dagnams,  near 
Romford]  are  afeard  of  London,  being  doubtful  of 
anything  that  comes  from  thence,  or  that  has  lately 
been  there,  that  I  was  forced  to  say  that  I  lived  wholly 
at  Woolwich. ' '  On  September  3,  he  was  obliged  to  go 
to  Greenwich  on  business  connected  with  the  Ad- 
miralty, "where  much  ado  to  be  suffered  to  come  into 
the  towne,  till  I  told  them  who  I  was. "  A  week  earlier 
he  recorded  that  it  was  ' l  an  unpleasing  thing  to  be  at 
Court  [then  at  Hampton  Court],  everybody  being 
fearful  one  of  another,  and  all  so  sad,  enquiring  after 
the  Plague." 

In  an  effort  to  assist  the  country  towns  to  make 
their  restrictions  more  effective,  the  King  on  August 

13  "Intelligencer,"  No.  57. 

[25] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

10,  1665,  sent  a  command  to  the  Middlesex  Justices  to 
use  diligence  in  preventing  the  removal  of  persons  or 
goods  from  London  and  suburbs  to  other  towns ;  and 
likewise  to  suppress  the  practice  of  infected  persons 
breaking  out  of  shut-up  houses.  Searchers,  nurses, 
etc.,  were  to  be  appointed  in  the  towns  in  the  Magis- 
trates' jurisdiction,  and  no  lodger  or  tenant  was  to 
be  admitted  without  the  permission  of  two  Justices  of 
the  Peace.  The  part  played  by  high  Church  officials 
in  preventing  the  spread  of  the  distemper  is  also 
worthy  of  note.  Thus,  to  mention  only  one  example, 
the  Bishop  of  Ely  temporarily  nullified  the  patent 
for  holding  the  annual  Fair  at  Ely,  for  fear  of  "a 
great  resort  from  London,  Yarmouth,  Colchester, 
Cambridge,  and  other  places."14 

Despite  all  efforts  to  prevent  the  spread  of  the 
disease  (in  London  by  means  of  shutting  up  infected 
houses,  in  the  country  by  orders  regulating  travel  and 
traffic),  the  Plague  finally  got  to  almost  every  part  of 
England.15  Defoe  has  faithfully  recorded  how  this 
came  about,  namely,  by  infected  persons  bribing  the 
watchmen  or  otherwise  escaping  from  shut-up  houses, 
and  by  others  getting  away  before  the  infection  was 
discovered  upon  them,  and  before  their  houses  were 
shut  up.  Defoe's  three  travelers  were  free  from  the 
distemper,  it  is  true ;  but  the  reverse  was  as  apt  to  be 
the  case.      Pepys  (Diary,  September  3,  1665)  gives  us 

14  "Intelligencer,"  No.  78. 

15  Scotland,   which   had   been   visited   in   a   most   frightful   manner   in 

former  plague  years,  forbade  (July  12,  1665)  all  persons  from 
England  to  enter  her  borders,  on  penalty  of  the  loss  of  life  and 
goods,  unless  '  'they  bring  sufficient  passes  and  testimonials  with 
them,  under  the  hands  and  seals  of  the  Major  and  Aldermen." 
"Newes,"  No.  58.  No  wonder  Defoe  remarked  that  he  did  not 
know  "how  it  fared  with  Scotland," — there  was  no  plague  news 
from   Scotland. 

[26] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

a  graphic  picture  of  an  evasion  of  the  shutting  up  and 
guarding  order.  " Among  other  stories,"  he  says, 
"one  was  very  passionate,  me  thought,  of  a  complaint 
brought  against  a  man  in  the  towne  [of  Greenwich] 
for  taking  a  child  from  London  from  an  infected 
house.  Alderman  Hooker  told  me  it  was  the  child  of 
a  very  able  citizen  in  Gracious  Street,  a  saddler,  who 
had  buried  all  the  rest  of  his  children  of  the  plague, 
and  himself  and  wife  now  being  shut  up,  and  in 
despair  of  escaping,  did  desire  only  to  save  the  life  of 
this  little  child;  and  so  prevailed  to  have  it  received 
stark-naked  into  the  arms  of  a  friend,  who  brought  it 
(having  put  it  into  new  fresh  clothes)  to  Greenwich; 
whereupon  hearing  the  story,  we  did  agree  it  should 
be  permitted  to  be  received  and  left  in  the  towne.' ' 

The  frenzy  of  shut-up  victims,  when  the  fever  was 
at  its  height,  causing  them  to  do  violence  upon  them- 
selves or  others,  made  a  strong  appeal  to  Defoe,  as  to 
all  students  of  the  Plague.  One  thus  crazed,  men- 
tioned in  the  Journal,  broke  out  of  his  bed,  ran  naked 
through  the  streets  to  the  Thames,  plunged  in,  swam 
across  and  back,  and  was  soon  after  a  well  man. 
Thucydides  likewise  records  that  those  visited  with 
the  distemper  could  not  endure  clothing  upon  them, 
and  that  nothing  pleased  them  so  much  as  to  plunge 
into  water.  Add  to  this  statement  of  Thucydides  the 
debate  over  the  cold  water  cure,  and  we  have  Defoe's 
story ;  and  note  here  too,  as  so  often  in  the  Journal,  its 
author  does  not  vouch  for  the  truthfulness  of  the 
story.  Another  instance  of  a  similar  nature  is  of  one 
who,  "in  or  about  Whitecross  Street  burned  himself 
to  death  in  his  bed. "     As  this  was  taken  directly  from 

[27] 


HISTORICAL    SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

Vincent's  God's  Terrible  Voice  in  the  City  (which  also 
furnished  numerous  other  facts  for  the  Journal),  it 
was  not  necessary  to  warn  the  reader  that  it  might  not 
be  authentic, — Defoe  got  it  from  undoubted  authority. 
Of  violence  upon  others,  when  the  infected  were  de- 
lirious, examples  are  only  too  numerous.  The  author 
of  Shutting  up  Infected  Rouses  relates  that  in  their 
paroxysms  of  pain  the  sick  ' '  are  ready  to  commit  any 
violence,  either  upon  themselves  or  others,  whether 
wife,  mother,  or  child, "  and,  by  the  method  adopted 
by  Defoe,  cites  a  specific  example  "last  week  in  Fleet 
Lane,  where  the  man  of  the  house  being  sick,  and  hav- 
ing a  great  swelling,  .  .  .  did  in  a  strong  fit  rise  out  of 
his  bed,  in  spight  of  all  that  his  wife  (who  attended 
him)  could  do  to  the  contrary,  got  his  knife  and  most 
miserably  cut  his  wife,  and  had  killed  her,  had  she  not 
wrapped  up  the  sheet  about  her,  and  therewith  saved 
herself,  till  by  crying  out  Murther,  a  neighbour  .  .  . 
came  seasonably  to  her  preservation.  The  man  is 
since  dead." 

Of  the  mournful  stories  and  descriptions  in  the 
Journal,  one  enthusiastic  editor  exclaims  in  admira- 
tion, "Nothing  could  be  more  tragic,"  etc., — as  if 
Defoe's  imagination  were  the  author  of  the  tragedy! 
A  few  brief  glances  through  the  account  just  quoted 
from,  or  at  the  pages  of  Withers,  Austin,  Hodges,  Vin- 
cent, and  others,  would  reveal  not  only  more  tragical 
scenes,  but  more  pathetic  and  more  graphic,  than  those 
in  the  Journal.  Take,  for  example,  this  vivid  descrip- 
tion of  the  horrors  of  the  Plague:16 

16  George  Withers,  "Britain's  Remembrancer,"  fol.  105.  That  this 
refers  to  the  Plague  of  1625  makes  nothing  against  it  as  evi- 
dence,—  the    histories    of    all    plagues    are    filled    with    identical 

[28] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

Here,  one  man  stagger 'd  by  with  visage  pale ; 
There,  lean'd  another  grunting  on  a  stall; 
A  third,  half  dead,  lay  gasping  for  his  grave ; 
A  fourth  did  out  of  window  call  and  rave ; 
Yon,  came  the  bearers  sweating  from  the  Pit, 
To  fetch  more  bodies  to  replenish  it. 
A  little  further  off,  one  sits  and  shows 
The  spots,  which  he  death's  tokens  doth  suppose; 

Yea,  the  terror 
Occasioned  by  their  fond  and  common  error, 
Who  tell  the  sick  that  markt  for  death  they  be, 
(When  those  blue  spots  upon  their  flesh  they  see) 
Even  that  hath  murthered  thousands  who  might  here 
Have  lived,  else,  among  us,  many  a  year. 

And  there  is  nothing  in  Defoe's  narrative  that  for  an 
instant  can  be  compared  with  the  following  extract 
from  God 's  Terrible  Voice:  "In  August ...  the  people 
fell  as  thick  as  leaves  from  the  trees  in  Autumn,  .  .  . 
and  there  is  a  dismal  solitude  in  London  streets.  .  .  . 
Now  shops  are  shut  in,  people  rare  and  very  few  that 
walk  about,  insomuch  that  grass  begins  to  spring  up 
in  some  places,  especially  within  the  Walls ;  no  rattling 
coaches,  no  prancing  horses,  no  calling  in  customers, 
no  offering  wares,  no  London  cries  sounding  in  the 
ears ;  if  any  voice  be  heard  it  is  the  groans  of  dying 

horrors.  It  will  be  observed  that  Withers  speaks  of  people 
dying  of  fright ;  practically  all  the  sources  agree  on  this  point, — 
Hodges,  Vincent,  Kemp,  "J.  V.,"  Boghurst,  etc.  On  August 
9,  1665,  Pepys  wrote  in  his  "Diary":  "An  odd  story  of  Al- 
derman Bunce's  stumbling  over  a  dead  corpse  in  the  streets, 
and  going  home  and  telling  his  wife,  she  at  the  fright,  being 
with  child,  fell  sick  and  died  of  the  plague."  Defoe  had 
ample   authority   for  a   similar   story. 

[29] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

persons  breathing  forth  their  last;  and  the  funeral 
knells  of  them  that  are  ready  to  be  carried  to  their 
graves.  Now  shutting  up  of  visited  houses,  there  be- 
ing so  many,  is  at  an  end,  and  most  of  the  well  are 
mingled  among  the  sick,  which  otherwise  would  have 
got  no  help.  Now  in  some  places  where  the  people  did 
generally  stay,  not  one  house  in  an  hundred  but  is  in- 
fected, and  in  many  houses  half  the  family  is  swept 
away, — in  some  the  whole.  .  .  .  Now  the  nights  are 
too  short  to  bury  the  dead,  the  whole  day  (though  at  so 
great  a  length)  is  hardly  sufficient  to  light  the  dead 
that  fall  therein  into  their  beds. 

"Now,  we  could  hardly  go  forth,  but  we  should 
meet  many  coffins,  and  see  many  with  sores  and  limp- 
ing in  the  streets;  amongst  other  sad  spectacles,  me- 
thought  two  were  very  affecting :  one  of  a  woman  com- 
ing alone  and  weeping  by  the  door  wnere  I  lived 
(which  was  in  the  midst  of  the  infection)  with  a  little 
coffin  under  her  arm,  carrying  it  to  the  new  church- 
yard. I  did  judge  it  was  the  mother  of  the  child,  and 
that  all  the  family  besides  was  dead,  and  she  was 
forced  to  coffin  up  and  bury  with  her  own  hands  this 
her  last  dead  child.' '  The  other  story  related  by 
Vincent  is  that  of  a  plague  victim  who  was  seized  with 
a  fit  near  the  Artillery  Wall  against  which  he  dashed 
his  head,  "and  when  I  came  by  he  lay  hanging  with 
his  bloody  face  over  the  rails,  and  bleeding  upon  the 
ground.  As  I  came  back  he  was  removed  under  a  tree 
in  Moore-fields  and  lay  upon  his  back;  I  went  and 
spake  to  him ;  he  could  make  me  no  answer,  but  rattled 
in  his  throat,  and,  as  I  was  informed,  within  half  an 
hour  died  in  the  place.' '    It  will  be  necessary  to 

[30] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

mention  Vincent  again,  but  from  this  brief 
quotation  it  will  at  once  be  apparent  that  not  only 
did  Defoe  borrow  from  him  liberally  of  material 
and  style  (cf.  whole  families  and  whole  streets 
swept  away,  grass  growing  in  the  streets,  sad 
sights  of  victims  limping  about,  etc.),  but  also  how 
far  short  the  later  writer  fell  in  emulating  his  source. 
There  is  nothing  in  the  Journal  that  approaches  the 
delineations  of  the  genuine  eye-witness,  as  to  tragic 
pathos  and  graphic  portrayal.  Even  the  very  excla- 
mations of  compassion,  intended  by  Defoe  to  arouse 
pity,  are  taken  directly  over  by  him  from  the  sources, 
which  supplied  him  with  his  materials  also.  Not  only 
so,  but  these  exclamations  occur  invariably  in  the  ex- 
act connections  where  they  appear  in  the  originals. 
Thus,  "it  would  wound  the  soul  of  any  Christian  to 
have  heard"  the  penitent  groans  of  sinners — which 
occurs  three  times  in  the  Journal — was  borrowed  from 
Vincent  (op.  cit.  p.  25).  So,  also,  "it  often  pierced 
my  very  soul  to  hear  the  groans  and  cries,"  "it  was 
indeed  a  lamentable  thing  to  hear  the  lamentations  of 
poor  dying  creatures, "  or,  "  it  would  make  the  stoutest 
heart  bleed  to  hear, ' '  etc.,  or,  ' '  it  would  make  the  hard- 
est heart  move,"  etc.,  or,  "it  was  enough  to  place  hor- 
ror on  the  stoutest  heart  in  the  world, ' '  are  no  more  a 
part  of  Defoe's  lauded  piety  than  are  the  other  mythi- 
cal attributes  with  which  he  has  been  invested  by 
vapouring  admirers.  These  are  nothing  but  para- 
phrases of  the  common  pious  expressions  of  contem- 
poraneous writers  on  the  Plague.  Compare,  for  ex- 
ample, one  of  Defoe's  main  sources,  Hodges ?s  Loimo- 
logia :  ' '  Who  can  express  the  calamities  of  such  times  1 

[31] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

The  whole  British  Nation  wept."  Again,  "Who 
would  not  burst  with  grief/'  etc.,  or,  "even  the  rela- 
tion of  this  calamity  melts  me  into  tears."  George 
Withers  (op.  cit,  70)  has  a  like  expiration  in, 

Ah  me !  what  tongue  can  tell  the  many  woes, 
What  mortal  pen  is  able  to  express,  etc. 

And  Evelyn,  who  like  Withers  remained  in  London 
during  the  Plague  of  1665,  exclaims,  "My  very  heart 
turns  within  me  at  the  contemplation  of  our  calam- 
ity."17 To  take  still  another  example,  on  September 
14,  1665,  J.  Tillison  wrote  to  Dean  Sancroft,  "y* 
heart  is  either  steel  or  stone  y*  will  not  lament  for  this 
sad  visitation,  &  will  not  bleed  for  these  vnutterable 
sorrowes;"  and  again  in  the  same  epistle,  "What  ey: 
would  not  weep,"  etc.  That  the  last  two  quotations 
could  not  have  been  known  to  Defoe  only  serves  to 
emphasize  his  unoriginality  in  his  expression  of  a 
pious  horror :  such  expressions  were  the  fashion  of  the 
time.  And  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  religious 
element  which  crops  out  here  and  there  in  the  Journal, 
its  expression  was  borrowed  along  with  the  rest.  To 
take  a  case  in  point,  his  "divine  meditations"  and  his 
sermon  on  blasphemy  may  have  been  suggested  by  or 
supplied  from,  any  number  of  sources,  as  Withers 's 
Britain's  Remembrancer,  Patrick's  An  Exhortation, 
etc.,  or  the  latter 's  numerous  meditations  and  ser- 
mons which  were  very  popular  in  Defoe's  time  (more 
than  one  hundred  of  them  being  in  print  in  1722,  sev- 
eral of  which  Defoe  had  in  his  own  library) ,  and  Vin- 

17  "Memoirs  and   Correspondence,"   ed.   1818,   II,   212. 

[32] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

cent's  God's  Terrible  Voice  and,  particularly,  his  ser- 
mon preached  on  the  occasion  of  the  funeral  of  Abra- 
ham Janaway,  Sept.  18,  1665.  Not  even  the  oft- 
repeated  "dismal  objects/'  "dismal  scenes,"  "dismal 
time,"  etc.,  are  original  with  Defoe,  but  are  copied  by 
him  from  Vincent's  "dismal  solitude,"  Hodges 's 
"dismal  prospect,"  etc.  Defoe's  "Scarce  a  day  or 
night  passed  over  but  some  dismal  thing  or  other 
happened,"  appears  in  Vincent  as,  "Scarcely  a  day 
passed  over  my  head  for  I  think  a  month  or  more  to- 
gether, but  I  should  hear  the  death  of  some  one  or 
more  that  I  knew."  In  both  cases,  the  expressions 
follow  immediately  after  the  story  of  the  man  who 
burnt  himself  to  death  in  bed.  The  little  mannerisms, 
"I  say,"  "As  I  said  before,"  "If  I  may  give  my 
opinion,"  etc.  are  likewise  reflections  from  the 
originals.  "I  say,"  was  a  particular  favourite  with 
Boccaccio  (cf.  1st  Day  of  Decameron).  Indeed,  the 
resemblance  between  Defoe's  expressions  and  those  of 
his  sources  are  so  marked  as  to  lead  to  the  conclusion 
that  not  only  did  he  copy  facts,  but  also  the  very 
language,  from  the  originals.  Even  his  opinions  re- 
specting the  care  and  treatment  of  the  plague-seized, 
the  prevention  of  the  disease  spreading,  questions  of 
quarantine,  public  fires,  fumigation,  etc.,  so  gener- 
ously made  a  part  of  Defoe's  originality  by  com- 
mentators, are  borrowed  from  his  sources.  Thus,  the 
argument  for  the  spread  of  the  distemper  by  con- 
tagion came  from  Hodges  and  his  followers,  as  did  the 
pro  and  con  discussions  of  shutting  up,  the  efficacy  of 
fires    in    the    streets,    etc.     The    numerous    medical 

[33] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

treatises  on  the  distemper  from  Diemerbroeck  to  Mead 
and  Quincy  furnished  Defoe  materials  of  that  nature. 
In  a  few  instances,  Defoe  parts,  or  partially  parts, 
company  from  his  sources.  An  example  of  this  is  the 
case  of  wicked  nurses.  Almost  without  an  exception 
the  authorities  who  mention  the  subject  agree  that 
nurses  often  hastened  the  death  of  their  patients  by 
poisoning,  smothering,  or  otherwise  bringing  about 
their  end,  with  the  purpose  of  robbing  the  dead.  De- 
foe, true  to  his  task,  repeats  their  evidence,  but  doubts 
there  was  "more  of  tale  than  truth  in  those  things.' ' 
While  his  dissent  is  purely  gratuitous,  it  in  no  sense 
confuses  the  record  of  fact.  The  stories  of  robberies 
alleged  to  have  been  committed  by  the  nurses,  after  the 
members  of  a  plague-stricken  family  were  all  dead, 
even  to  the  taking  of  the  linen  from  the  bed  and  the 
clothes  from  the  corpses,  he  accepts  without  question, 
but,  oddly  enough,  similar  stories  related  of  the 
buriers  he  "cannot  easily  credit  anything  so  vile 
among  Christians. ' '  Nevertheless,  he  relates  the 
stories, — the  main  thing  so  far  as  history  is  concerned. 
Both  as  regards  the  wicked  nurses  and  the  dishonest 
buriers  there  is  abundant  of  evidence,  though,  natur- 
ally, more  against  the  criminal  nurses,  as  they  had  the 
first  opportunity  to  rob  the  dead.  On  this  point,  Dr. 
Hodges 's  testimony  is  beyond  dispute.  "These 
wretches,  out  of  greediness  to  plunder  the  dead,"  he 
says  {Loimologia,  ed.  1720,  p.  8)  "would  strangle 
their  patients,  and  charge  it  to  the  distemper  in  their 
throats;  others  would  secretly  convey  the  pestilential 
taint  from  sores  of  the  infected  to  those  who  were 
well;  and  nothing  indeed  deterred  these  abandoned 

[34] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

miscreants  from  prosecuting  their  avaricious  purposes 
by  all  the  methods  their  wickedness  could  invent.  .  .  . 
One  amongst  many,  as  she  was  leaving  the  house  of  a 
family,  all  dead,  loaded  with  her  robberies,  fell  down 
dead  under  her  burden  in  the  streets.  And  the  case 
of  a  worthy  citizen  was  very  remarkable,  who  being 
suspected  dying  by  his  nurse,  was  beforehand  stripped 
by  her;  but  recovering  again,  he  came  a  second  time 
into  the  world  naked."  Austin  corroborates  all  this 
in  his  Anatomy  of  the  Pestilence  (1665)  : 

He'll  [i.  e.  the  patient]  ne'er  give  out  she  killed  him, 

for  'tis  said, 
He's  to  be  always  silent  when  he's  dead. 
And  while  he  lives,  nurses  he  '11  never  curse, 
Knowing  few  good,  most  bad,  and  many  worse. 

That  many  searchers  were  dishonest,  we  learn  from 
the  same  historian,  who  likewise  furnishes  us  with 
further  evidence  that  some  were  robbed  before  they 
were  dead,  and  of  the  winding  sheet  afterwards. 

Those  there  [at  the  grave]  we  thought  bid  us  their  last 

adieu, 
Before  they  can  repent  are  born  anew. 
They,  walking,  speak,  thinking  they  may  be  bold, 
Wanting  their  clothes,  to  say  they  are  a-cold. 

And  again,  with  fine  irony, 

One  too  too  weak  to  raise  his  aking  head, 

Throws  off  the  sheet  when  friends  have  sold  his  bed. 

And  so  on,  in  half-a-dozen  similar  examples. 

[35] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

Vincent  supports  this  testimony  when  he  says 
that,  after  the  order  for  shutting  up  of  houses  had 
been  issued,  and  the  inscription,  Lord  have  mercy 
upon  us,  set  over  the  door,  none  was  suffered  to  come 
to  the  pent-up  victims  "but  a  nurse,  whom  they  have 
been  more  afraid  of  than  the  Plague  itself. ' ' 

But  it  is  the  vitriolic  pen  of  the  author  of  Shut- 
ting up  Infected  Houses  that  depicts  the  nurses  of 
1665  in  the  blackest  shade.  "Little  is  it  conceived, " 
he  writes,  "how  careless  most  nurses  are  in  attending 
the  visited,  and  how  careful  (being  possessed  with 
rooking  avarice)  they  are  to  watch  their  opportunity 
to  ransack  their  houses ;  the  assured  absence  of  friends 
making  the  sick  desperate  on  the  one  hand,  and  them 
on  the  other  unfaithful:  their  estates  are  the  Plague 
most  die  on,  if  they  have  anything  to  lose,  to  be  sure 
those  sad  creatures  (for  the  nurses  in  such  cases  are 
the  off-scouring  of  the  City)  have  a  dose  to  give  them ; 
besides  that  it  is  something  beyond  a  Plague  to  an  in- 
genious spirit  to  be  in  the  hands  of  those  dirty,  ugly, 
and  unwholesome  hags;  even  a  hell  itself,  on  the  one 
hand  to  hear  nothing  but  screetches,  cries,  groans,  and 
on  the  other  to  see  nothing  but  ugliness  and  deformity, 
black  as  night,  and  dark  as  Melancholy :  Ah !  to  lie  at 
the  mercy  of  a  strange  woman  is  sad;  to  leave  wife, 
children,  plate,  jewels,  to  the  ingenuity  of  poverty  is 
worse;  but  who  can  express  the  misery  of  being  ex- 
posed to  their  rapine  that  have  nothing  of  the  woman 
left  but  shape ?"18 

18  One  of  the  stories  (essentials  taken  from  Hodges)  which  Defoe 
relates  is  of  a  nurse  who  smothered  a  victim  by  '  'laying  a  wet 
double  clout"  on  his  face.  The  language  adopted  in  telling  this 
seems  to  have  been  suggested  by  the  2nd  Book  of  Kings,  viii,  15: 
"And   it    came    to   pass    on   the   morrow,    that    he    took    a    thick 

[36] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

Another  minor  divergence  between  Defoe  and 
his  sources  is  found  in  the  question  of  the  alleged 
pleasure,  or  at  least  gross  carelessness,  which  infected 
persons  manifested  in  consciously  infecting  others. 
But  here  again,  all  the  authorities  are  against  him. 
Defoe  repeats  the  assertion  (with  his  denial)  a  num- 
ber of  times  in  the  Journal,  and  also  gives  arguments 
(taken  straight  from  Hodges 's  Loimologia,  p.  10,  and 
Mead's  Short  Discourse,  8th  ed.,  p.  xvii)  for  this  cruel 
perversity  of  human  nature.  In  support  of  the  fact, 
as  related  in  the  works  mentioned,  we  read  in  Pepys's 
Diary  for  February  12,  1666 :  ' '  Comes  Mr.  Caesar,  my 
boy's  lute-master,  whom  I  have  not  seen  since  the 
plague  before.  .  .  .  He  tells  me  in  the  height  of  it, 
how  bold  people  there  were,  to  go  in  sport  to  one  an- 
other's burials;  and  in  spite  too,  ill  people  would 
breathe  in  the  face  ...  of  well  people."  On  August 
22,  1665,  he  laments  that  the  Plague  ' '  makes  us  more 
cruel  to  one  another  than  if  we  are  doggs ; ' '  and  again 
to  the  same  effect  on  September  4  following.  Defoe's 
own  faithful  record  (corroborated  by  Pepys,  the 
"newsbooks"  and  others)  that  people  persisted  in 
crowding  to  burials,  and  so  spread  the  infection, 
should  have  corrected  his  ' '  opinion  "  to  a  large  degree, 
for  such  gatherings  were  due  to  sheer  morbidity  and  a 
dogged  perversity.19     But  here,  once  more,  we  are 

cloth  and  dipped  it  in  water,  and  spread  it  on  his  face,  so  that 
he  died."  The  practice  of  smothering  was  a  common  one,  by 
report,  in  1665. 

In  most  of  the  quotations  which  I  have  given  to  illustrate  a  single 
point,  other  parallels  to  the  "Journal"  will  at  once  suggest 
themselves. 
19  In  '|Newes"  No.  71  (August  29,  1665),  L'Estrange  thus  com- 
plains: "The  late  encrease  of  the  sickness  in  and  about  this 
town  (beside  that  the  Judgement  is  in  itself  just  and  dreadful) 
has  been  undoubtedly  promoted  by  the  incorrigible  license  of 
the    multitudes    that    resort    to    publick    funerals,    contrary    both 

[37] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

supplied  with  the  historical  account  and  are  distinctly 
told  that  the  narrator  is  merely  expressing  an  opin- 
ion,— a  legitimate  license  practised  by  all  historians, 
some  of  whom,  indeed,  unlike  Defoe,  often  substitute 
opinion  for  fact.  It  is  Defoe's  very  frankness  which 
has  caused  him  to  be  suspect. 

Another  point  on  which  Defoe  numerously  ex- 
presses an  opinion  is  in  regard  to  the  inaccuracies  of 
the  Bills  of  Mortality,  as  officially  reported  every 
week.  In  this  he  is  only  following  the  unani- 
mous judgment  of  contemporary  authorities.  Thus, 
Hodges  {op.  tit.,  28)  gives  the  estimated  total  of 
deaths  from  the  Plague  in  1665  as  being  over  100,000 
(the  Bills  reported  only  68,596).  Defoe  accepts 
Hodges 's  estimate  (without  naming  the  authority)  as 
low  enough.  Also,  like  Hodges,  Boghurst,  and  others, 
he  points  out  the  probability  that  victims  of  the 
Plague  were  often  reported  as  having  died  of  other 
diseases.  Commenting  on  the  discrepancies  in  the  re- 
turns by  the  Parish  Clerks,  the  author  of  Reflections 
on  the  Weekly  Bills  of  Mortality  (1665)  observes  that 
' '  there  lyeth  an  error  in  the  accounts  or  distinctions  of 
casualities,  that  is,  more  died  of  the  Plague  than  were 
accounted  for  under  that  name,  as  many  as  one  to 
four,  there  being  a  fourth  part  more  dead  of  other 
casualities  in  Plague  years  than  the  years  preceding 

to  order  and  reason."  And  Pepys  "Diary,"  September  3, 
1665:  "Lordl  to  consider  the  madness  of  the  people  of  the 
town,  who  will  (because  they  are  forbid)  come  in  crowds  along 
with  the  dead  corpses  to  see  them  buried."  Again,  three  days 
later,  he  "saw  in  broad  daylight  two  or  three  burials  upon  the 
Bankside,  one  at  the  very  heels  of  another;  and  yet  forty  or 
fifty  going  along  with  every  one  of  them."  It  will  be  remem- 
bered, also,  that  Pepys,  just  as  Defoe's  sadler,  could  not  resist 
the  temptation  to  prowl  about  to  see  how  the  Plague  was  pro- 
gressing, even  to  going  to  burials.  Cf.  "Diary,"  August  30. 
1665. 

[38] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

or  subsequent :  whence  we  may  collect  a  good  rule,  viz. 
That  whereas  it  is  doubted  we  have  not  a  true  account 
of  the  number  that  died  ...  of  the  Plague,  the  poor 
searchers,  out  of  ignorance,  respect,  love  of  money, 
or  malice,  returning,  it's  suspected,  more  or  less  as 
they  are  inclined ;  we  may  discern  the  truth,  by  com- 
paring the  number  that  died  of  other  diseases,  and  the 
casualities  the  weeks  immediately  before  the  Plague 
begun,  and  the  numbers  reported  to  have  been  dead 
every  week  of  those  diseases  and  casualities  since,  and 
observing  that  the  surplusage  that  die  now  above  what 
did  then  of  those  diseases,  are  indeed  dead  of  the 
Plague,  though  returned  under  the  notion  of  those 
other  diseases."  Writing  on  August  24,  1665,  John 
Allin  (Archaelogia,  xxxvii,  6)  reported  4,257  dead  of 
the  Plague  for  that  week,  "but  rather  in  verity  5,000, 
though  not  so  many  in  ye  bill  of  the  Plague. ' '  This 
estimated  discrepancy  is  less  than  that  of  John 
Graunt's,  just  quoted.  On  the  other  hand,  Clarendon 
(Continuation  of  the  Life  of),  with  his  usual  inaccu- 
racy avers  that  the  Bills  returned  ' '  above  one  hundred 
and  three  score  thousand  persons :  and  many  who  could 
compute  very  well  concluded  that  there  were  in  truth 
double  that  number  who  died;  and  that  in  one  week, 
when  the  Bill  mentioned  only  six  thousand,  there  had 
in  truth  over  fourteen  thousand  died."  It  may  be 
stated,  not  in  support  of  these  exaggerations,  but  as 
a  matter  of  contemporaneous  opinion,  that  as  many 
as  eight  thousand  or  ten  thousand  died  in  one  week  in 
September,  when  the  Plague  was  at  its  height.20  Of 
far  greater  value  in  Clarendon's  account  are  the  ex- 

20  See    "Loimologia,"    16;     Pepys,    August    31,    1665;     Evelyn,    Sep- 
tember  7,    1665. 

[39] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

planations  lie  gives  for  the  misrepresentations  in  the 
Bills.  "The  frequent  deaths  of  the  Clerks  and  Sex- 
tons of  Parishes/'  he  continues,  "hindered  the  exact 
account  of  every  week ;  but  that  which  left  it  without 
any  certainty  was  the  vast  number  that  was  buried  in 
the  fields,  of  which  no  account  was  kept.  Then  of  the 
Anabaptists  and  other  sectaries  who  abounded  in  the 
City,  very  few  left  their  habitations;  and  multitude* 
of  them  died,  whereof  no  church-warden  or  other  of- 
ficer had  notice;  but  they  found  burials  according  to 
their  own  fancies,  in  their  own  gardens  or  the  next 
fields/ '  Of  this  class,  though  not  mentioned  by 
Clarendon,  were  the  Quakers,  who  refused  to  have  the 
bell  rung  for  their  dead  whom  they  buried  without 
making  report  of  the  fact  to  the  Parish  Clerk.21  It  is 
also  pretty  evident  that  the  authorities  " doctored' ' 
the  Bills  before  they  were  published.  As  an  example 
of  this,  Pepys  records  a  detail  in  point  (Dairy,  August 
30,  1665) :  "Up  betimes  .  .  .  and  abroad  and  met  with 
Hadley,  our  clerke,  who,  upon  my  asking  how  the 
plague  goes,  he  told  me  it  encreases  much,  and  much  in 
our  parish  [St.  Olave,  Hart  St.] ;  for,  says  he,  there 
died  nine  this  week,  though  I  have  returned  but  six: 
which  is  a  very  ill  practice,  and  makes  me  think  it  is 
so  in  other  places,  and  therefore  the  plague  much 
greater  than  people  take  it  to  be."  More  particularly 
in  a  letter  dated  December  5,  1665,  from  Dr.  Symon 
Patrick  to  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Gauden,  we  are  told  that 
"the  just  number   [of  dead]   they   [i.  e.  the  clerks] 

21  On  September  14,  1665,  J.  Tillison  wrote  to  Dean  Sancroft:  "The 
Quakers  (as  we  are  informed)  have  buryed  in  their  peece  1000 
for  some  weekes  together  last  past,  ...  &  many  other  places 
about  ye  town  are  not  included  in  ye  bill  of  Mortality."  Cf. 
Pepys,  August  31,  1665. 

[40] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

would  not  declare,  because  the  Lord  Mayor  must  have 
it  first :  I  heard  lately  that  he  imprisoned  one  of  the 
officers  because  they  spread  abroad  the  account  before 
they  came  to  him:  which  indeed  was  unhandsome."23 
Once  again,  Defoe  recorded  the  facts  ''within  com- 
pass. ' ' 

The  great  fascination  of  the  Journal  is  not  in  the 
isolated  stories  used  to  illustrate  a  given  phase  or  stage 
of  the  Plague — such  as  those  I  have  dealt  with  thus  far 
— but  more  particularly  in  the  constant  impressing 
upon  the  reader  the  general  desolation  of  the  town, — 
empty  streets  with   grass  growing  therein,   lack  of 
trade,  shut-up  shops,  doleful  appearance  of  the  people 
one  met  with,  some  full  of  sores,  and  all  afraid  of  one 
another,  the  rumbling  of  the  dead  cart,  the  bell  always 
tolling,  and  the  ever  ceasless  ' '  Bring  out  your  dead ! ' ' 
dinging  mortality  into  the  very  soul.     Of  such  in- 
stances, the  duplicate  sources  are  so  numerous  that 
only  a  few  may  be  mentioned  here.     Hodges,  Vincent, 
and  other  originals  who  certainly  supplied  Defoe  with 
the  bulk  of  his  materials  which  he  used  to  illustrate 
the  pathetic  side  of  the  Plague,  I  shall  reserve  for  an- 
other place,  and  reproduce  here  only  extracts  from 
parallel  sources,   some   of  which  Defoe   could  have 
known    nothing.      As    people    began    thoroughly    to 
realize  the  horrors  of  the  distemper,  Austin  {Anat- 
omy, p.  8,  et  sq.)  describes  them, 

So  timorously  they  talk,  look  pale,  and  stare, 
As  if  they  had  been  frighted  by  the  air. 

22  Add.   MSS.,    5,810. 

[41] 


HISTORICAL    SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

The  same  historian  records  that  the  Inns  of  Court 
were  closed,  shops  were  shut  up,  and  the  Court  left 
town, — 

The  only  thriving  trade  one  can  tell  here 

Lives  by  the  dead  (as  hangmen), —  coffin-seller; 

•  •••••••• 

At  ev'ry  door  stand  marshall'd  in  array 

Biers,  as  green  boughs  are  planted  there  in  May. 

People  kept  to  the  middle  of  the  street,  the  sight  of  an 
infected  house  aroused  horror,  the  town  was  so  forlorn 
that, 

Did  Caesar  now  enter  our  City  gate, 
His  prize  would  make  him  think  h'had  found 
a  cheat. 

Of  the  great  pit  and  the  numerous  burials, 

Many  attend  them  to  the  graves  are  taught 
How  to  come  there  next  day;  so  then  are  brought. 

•  •••••••• 

In  this,  the  grave's  great  Jubilee,  we  choose 
No  place  but  church-yard  for  our  rendezvous. 

The  awful  carnage,  the  pest  stalking  about  everywhere 
— in  the  market,  in  the  bread  sent  to  preserve  life,  on 
the  breath  of  a  friend  or  relative,  in  the  very  letter 
wishing  "long  life  and  perfect  health;'' 

And  to  speak  our  condition  at  the  best, 
Our  City's  merely  but  great  house  of  pest. 

[42] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

Withers  depicts  similar  scenes  and  conditions,  and 
many  more,  too  long  and  too  numerous  to  quote. 

Death  lurk't  at  ev'ry  angle  of  the  street, 

And, 

In  sundry  families  there  was  not  one 
Whom  his  rude  hand  did  take  compassion  on : 
Nay,  many  times  he  did  not  spare  the  last, 
Until  the  burial  of  the  first  was  past.23 

Turning  to  the  Sancroft  Correspondence  (Har- 
leian  MSS.  5784-5),  of  which  Defoe  could  have  known 
nothing,  in  a  letter  from  J.  Tillison  to  Dean  Sancroft, 
bearing  date  September  14,  1665,  we  read  even  a  more 
pathetic  tale  of  sorrow  and  desolation:  "What  ey: 
would  not  weep  to  see  soe  many  habitacons  vninhabit- 
ed  ?  ye  poore  sick  not  visited  ?  ye  hungry  not  fed  ?  ye 
grave  not  satisf yed  ?  Death  stares  vs  continuously  in 
ye  face  of  every  infected  Person  y*  passeth  by  vs,  in 
every  coffin  wch  is  dayly  &  hourely  carried  along  ye 
streets :  ye  Bells  never  cease  to  putt  vs  in  minde  of  our 
mortality.24  The  custom  was  in  ye  beginninge  to 
bury  ye  Dead  in  ye  night  only,  now  both  night  and 
day  will  hardly  be  tyme  enough  to  do  it,26  for  ye  last 
weeks  mortality  did  too  apparently  evidence  that,  that 
ye  Dead  was  piled  in  heapes  above  ground  for  some 
houres  before  either  tyme  could  be  gained  or  place  to 

23  Defoe  may  or  may  not  have  read  Austin  and  Withers:     in  either 

case  they  serve  to  authenticate  the    "Journal." 

24  Of.    the    Allin    Correspondence,     September    2,     1665,     "The    dole- 

full    and    almost    universall    and    continuall    ringing    and    tolling 
of    bells,"    and    Pepys,    July    26,    "the    bell    always    tolling." 
26  Cf.  Pepys,  August  12,   1665. 

[43] 


HISTORICAL    SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

bury  them  in."26  Evelyn  gives  a  not  less  gloomy 
picture  of  the  streets  when  the  Plague  was  at  its 
height.  On  September  7,  1665,  he  wrote  in  his  Diary : 
' '  I  went  along  the  city  and  suburbs  from  Kent  Street 
to  St.  James's,  a  dismal  passage,  and  dangerous  to 
see  so  many  coffins  exposed  in  the  streets,  now  thin  of 
people ;  the  shops  shut  up,  and  all  in  mournful  silence, 
not  knowing  whose  turn  might  be  next."  By  October 
11,  conditions  were,  if  possible,  even  worse,  when  he 
recorded  that  he  "went  through  the  whole  city,  having 
occasion  to  alight  out  of  the  coach  in  several  places,  . .  . 
when  I  was  environed  with  multitudes  of  poor  pestif- 
erous creatures  begging  alms;  the  shops  universally 
shut  up,  a  dreadful  prospect ! ' ' 

It  is  Pepys,  perhaps,  of  all  who  experienced  the 
year  1665,  who  wrote  down  the  greatest  number  and 
variety  of  notes  concerning  the  Plague.  Some  of  his 
experiences  rival  any  of  the  stories  told  by  Defoe  in 
the  Journal.  There  are  nearly  one  hundred  entries  in 
the  Diary  relating  to  the  Plague,  which,  when  pieced 
together,  furnish  us  with  a  more  direct  and  coherent, 
as  well  as  more  interesting,  account  of  that  calamity 
than  does  Defoe's  narrative.  Here,  of  course,  we  are 
concerned  only  with  such  records  as  corroborate  De- 
foe's descriptions  of  the  deserted  and  sorrowful  ap- 
pearance of  the  town  when  the  Plague  was  the  hottest. 
A  few  excerpts  from  the  Diary  must  suffice.  On  July 
22,  1665,  Pepys  went  from  one  end  of  London  to  the 
other.  This  is  the  impression  the  journey  made  upon 
him:  "I  to  Fox-Hall  [Vauxhall],  where  to  the  Spring 
garden ;  but  I  do  not  see  one  guest  there,  the  town  be- 

26  Defoe  denies  this,  but  is  in  error. 

[44] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

ing  so  empty  of  any  body  to  come  thither.     Only, 
while  I  was  there,  a  poor  woman  came  to  scold  with 
the  master  of  the  house  that  a  kinswoman,  I  think,  of 
hers,  that  was  newly  dead  of  the  plague,  might  be 
buried   in  the   church-yard;   for,   for  her  part,   she 
should  not  be  buried  in  the  commons  as  they  said  she 
should.  ...     I  by  coach  home,  not  meeting  with  but 
two  coaches  and  two  carts  from  White  Hall  to  my  own 
house,  that  I  could  observe  ■  and  the  streets  mightily 
thin  of  people."     Three  days  later,  he    went  to  the 
'Change,  "which  was  very  thin,"  and  the  following 
week  (July  30)  he  remarked  that  "it  was  a  sad  noise 
to  hear  our  bell  to  toll  and  ring  to-day,  either  for 
deaths  or  burials ;  I  think  five  or  six  times. ' '     On  Sep- 
tember 14,  he  summarizes  a  long  list  of  those  of  his 
friends  or  their  families  who  had  but  recently  died  of 
the  Plague,  which  "do  put  me  into  great  apprehen- 
sions of  melancholy."     The  absence  of  boats  on  the 
Thames  was  very  observable,  "and  grass  grows  all  up 
and  down  White  Hall  court,  and  nobody  but  wretches 
in  the  streets ! "    It  is  this  constant  dwelling  on  the  ut- 
ter desolation  and  misery  in  the  town  that  hovers  over 
the  reader  as  he  goes  through  the  pages  of  the  Jour- 
nal.     So,  also,  it  was  the  melancholy  of  it  all  that  so 
impressed  Pepys.     On  October  16, 1665,  he  again  went 
to  the  Exchange,  "which  is  very  empty,  God  knows! 
and  but  mean  people  there.  .  .  .  Thence  I  walked  to  the 
Tower;  but  Lord!  how  empty  the  streets  are  and  mel- 
ancholy, so  many  sick  people  in  the  streets  full  of 
sores;  and  so  many  sad  stories  overheard  as  I  walk 
every  body  telling  of  this  dead,  and  that  man  sick,  and 
so    many    in    this    place,    and    so    many    in    that." 

[45] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

Again,  on  October  27,  lie  went  through  Kent 
Street,  "a  miserable,  wretched,  poor  place,  peo- 
ple sitting  sicke  and  muffled  up  with  plasters  at  every 
4  or  5  doors."  A  few  days  later,  however,  a  new  face 
began  to  appear  on  the  outlook  in  London,  and  Pepys 
voiced  the  new  joy  in,  "we  end  the  month  merrily," 
owing  to  a  decrease  of  over  400  in  the  weekly  Bills. 
Hopes  fluctuated  with  the  weather  for  several  weeks, 
but  the  whole  tendency  from  this  onward  was  in  the 
direction  of  a  return  to  health  and  healthful  activities, 
and  away  from  dismal  scenes  and  melancholy 
stories.27 

Thus  far  it  is  apparent  that  Defoe's  materials 
which  he  used  to  illustrate  the  plain  historic  facts  of 
the  Plague  Year  were  in  no  sense  invented  by  him  for 
the  purpose,  but  were  taken  directly  from  parallel 
originals,  or  from  stories  related  to  him  by  the  sur- 
vivors of  1665,  as  abundantly  proved  by  the  duplicate 
or  parallel  stories  and  descriptions,  some  of  which  he 
could  have  known  nothing  save  from  oral  accounts. 
Thus,  if  we  find  stories  by  Pepys  (such,  for  example, 
the  Croom  Farm  stories),  or  in  the  Sancroft,  and  Pat- 
rick Correspondence,  similar  in  all  essentials  to  those 
in  the  Journal,  we  are  certainly  justified  in  concluding 
that  there  was  no  necessity  for  Defoe  to  exercise  his 
genius  in  inventing  stories  and  conditions  represent- 
ing the  facts  of  the  Plague,  and  that  he  got  all  these 
first-hand  from  those  who,  like  Pepys,  Sancroft  and 
Patrick,  experienced  them.     In  other  words,  Defoe's 

27  Defoe  has  been  criticised  (albeit  in  compliment)  to  the  effect  that, 
for  purposes  of  art,  he  represented  the  Plague  as  ceasing  more 
suddenly  and  more  completely  than  it  did  in  reality.  This  is 
only  true  as  regards  the  fact,  but  not  Defoe's  purpose.  Defoe 
simply  followed  Hodges. 

[46] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

sources  were  common  and  equivalent  to  these.  The 
proof  of  this  will  appear  in  the  next  Section  wherein 
the  now  positively  known  sources  of  the  Journal  are 
quite  undistinguishable  in  all  essentials  from  the  fore- 
going, save  in  the  matter  of  authentic  facts  as  regards 
statistics,  etc. 


[47] 


II 


"Where,  then,  did  Defoe  find  the  printed  materials 
for  his  history  of  the  Plague  ?  In  the  first  place,  the 
statistics  of  the  deaths  from  the  distemper,  which  are 
manipulated  with  much  skill  by  Defoe  to  awe  the 
reader  with  the  increase,  spread,  and  appalling  mag- 
nitude of  the  disease,  were  taken  directly  from  the 
Bills  of  Mortality,  first  compiled  in  1665  as  London's 
Remembrancer,  by  John  Bell,  one  of  the  Parish  Clerks. 
The  same  year,  John  Graunt  included  these  Bills  in 
his  Reflections  on  the  Weekly  Bills.  This  latter  book 
was  reprinted  in  1720,  and  probably  furnished  Defoe 
with  his  figures,  as  the  Journal  shows  indications  that 
its  author  had  read  the  Reflections.  It  is  more  than 
probable,  also,  that  the  files  of  the  1665  "newsbooks" 
were  examined,  as  I  shall  show,  as  these  contained  the 
Bills  as  they  appeared  each  week.  As  to  this  im- 
portant feature  of  the  Journal  I  need  only  add  that, 
with  the  exception  of  two  or  three  slips  in  copying  or 
in  proofreading,  Defoe  is  absolutely  faithful  to  the 
original  Bills.  It  should  be  noted  that  these  plainly 
indicated  the  progress  of  the  Plague  from  parish  to 
parish.  With  a  London  map  before  him,  together 
with  his  accurate  acquaintance  of  the  town,  Defoe 
should  have  had  little  trouble  in  evolving  his  history. 
But  as  he  did  not  give  himself  the  time  to  arrange 
and  organize  his  materials,  the  Journal  is  far  from 
being  a  satisfactory  history, — not  because  of  any  seri- 
ous misstatements  of  fact  but  rather  because  of  the 

[48] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

numerous   repetitions   and  inartistic   jumble  of  the 
facts. 

Next  in  order  should  be  mentioned  the  various 
Orders  of  the  Mayor,  the  Royal  Proclamations,  etc., 
for  these,  together  with  the  statistics  and  Hodges 's 
account  of  the  Plague,  furnished  Defoe  with  the  en- 
tire framework  of  the  Journal,  and  much  of  its  tissue. 
In  1721,  J.  Roberts,  a  bookseller,  republished  a  num- 
ber of  1665  documents  which  he  called  A  Collection  of 
very  Valuable  and  Scarce  Pieces  relating  to  the  last 
Plague  in  the  Year  1665.  Among  other  things,  this 
included  the  ' '  Orders  Conceived  and  Published  by  the 
Lord  Mayor  and  Aldermen  of  the  City  of  London 
concerning  the  Infection  of  the  Plague,  1665-."1  These 
Orders,  which  Defoe  reprinted  verbatim,  occupy  ten 
pages  in  the  Journal,  or  a  little  over  one-thirtieth  of 
the  entire  book.  But  their  importance  is  by  no  means 
to  be  measured  by  the  space  they  occupy;  for  out 
of  these  Orders  Defoe  evolved  a  considerable  propor- 
tion of  the  remainder  of  his  history.  This  he  accom- 
plished in  a  manner  so  skilful  as  to  elude  the  one  who 
reads  the  Journal  for  pleasure  alone;  but  when  sub- 
jected to  the  scrutiny  of  the  historian  it  immediately 
appears  what  Defoe  has  done  and  how  he  did  it.  In 
the  first  place,  he  restated,  either  in  a  contracted  or 
expanded  form,  in  his  own  manner,  practically  every 
one  of  these  Orders,  some  of  them  several  times.  How 
confidently  could  he  assume  the  role  of  an  Examiner 

1  The  same  collection  contained  Dr.  Hodges 's  brief  account  of  the 
Plague,  "in  a  Letter  to  a  Person  of  Quality."  Defoe  made 
slight  use  of  this  in  comparison  to  Hodges 's  more  extended  "Ac- 
count"   with  which  he  introduces  his    "Loimologia." 

[49] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

in  1665,  and  speak,  as  one  having  authority,  of  the 
duties  of  that  office,  when  he  had  the  very  printed  in- 
structions lying  open  before  him!  So,  also,  all  the 
records  respecting  the  searchers  and  watchmen,  shut- 
ting up  and  marking  of  houses,  burial  of  the  dead,  for- 
bidding the  use  of  hackney  coaches,  keeping  the  streets 
clean,  killing  dogs  and  cats,  regulations  concerning 
public  houses,  prohibiting  plays,  duties  of  Lord  Mayor 
and  Aldermen,  etc.,  etc.,  are  but  repetitions  and  vari- 
ations of  these  Orders.  I  say  ' '  all  the  records ; ' '  but 
this  is  not  strictly  the  whole  truth,  for  Defoe  often 
elaborates  and  embroiders  the  facts  therein  with 
knowledge  gleaned  from  other  fields.  Thus,  for  ex- 
ample, his  discussions  of  the  work  of  the  watchmen, 
the  nurses,  the  doctors,  and,  above  all,  the  order 
for  shutting  up,  are  all  enriched  and  enlarged  from 
his  other  sources.  On  the  other  hand,  he  sometimes 
so  closely  follows  a  given  Order  as  to  assert  positively 
that  it  was  faithfully  executed,  as  in  the  case  of  keep- 
ing the  streets  clean,  the  prompt  burial  of  the  dead, 
etc.,  at  times  a  physical  impossibility.  In  these  in- 
stances, it  is  very  likely  that  Defoe  wished  to  glorify 
the  name  and  fame  of  Sir  John  Lawrence  whose 
courage  and  untiring  labour,  as  Lord  Mayor  during 
that  fateful  year,  will  never  be  passed  over  without 
the  highest  praise. 

By  detaching  these  Orders  and  scattering  them 
over  the  pages  of  the  Journal  in  his  own  style,  now 
expanding  them  in  the  manner  I  have  related,  now  il- 
lustrating them  with  stories  coming  down  from  1665 
(inevitable  in  essence,  otherwise  the  facts  would  be 

[50] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

meaningless),2  now  combining  them  in  quite  different 
relations,  Defoe  succeeded  in  padding  up  a  thin  volume 
until  it  reached  the  required  number  of  pages  to  meet 
trade  demands,  and,  in  later  times,  in  deceiving  an 
idle,  ignorant,  gullible  public  into  the  pleasant  belief 
that  history  is  fiction,  and  that  the  record  of  fact,  if 
done  by  one  who  can  translate  himself  into  his  ma- 
terials and  his  materials  into  himself,  raises  the 
recorder  of  those  facts  from  the  rank  of  a  clever  his- 
torian to  the  exalted  position  of  inventor  of  the  facts. 
The  Collection  of  very  Valuable  and  Scarce 
Pieces  included  also  "Necessary  Directions  for  the 
Prevention  and  Cure  of  the  Plague  in  1665.  With 
divers  Remedies  of  small  Charge,  by  the  College  of 
Physicians,"  which  Defoe  may  have  made  use  of,  in 
respect  of  the  treatment  of  the  disease  in  its  various 
stages,  the  care  to  be  taken  to  prevent  the  disease  from 
getting  to  the  uninfected,  airing  goods,  fumigating 
houses,  etc.  But  as  all  this  information  could  have 
been  had  from  numerous  sources,  it  would  be  idle  to 
conjecture  which  one  or  ones  Defoe  actually  made  use 
of.  That  he  probably  used  the  "Necessary  Direc- 
tions" is  suggested  by  the  fact  that  he  states  that  they 
were  prepared  by  order  of  the  Lord  Mayor,  an  in- 
ference growing  out  of  the  "Orders"  just  discussed, 
which  did  emanate  from  the  Lord  Mayor's  Office.  The 
"Necessary  Directions"  came  as  a  result  of  a  Privy 
Council  Order,  in  response  to  a  Royal  mandate. 

2  To  illustrate:  we  have  the  historic  facts  about  shutting  up,  dis- 
honest watchmen  who  could  be  bribed,  people  escaping  out  of 
shut-up  houses,  thus  scattering  the  Plague  broadcast  If  these 
four  facts  are  not  mere  abstractions,  then  they  appear,  as  a  real 
story  when  introduced  by  the  simple  device,  "I  heard  of  a 
man, ' '    etc. 

[51] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

The  other  Orders  and  Proclamations  mentioned 
by  Defoe,  such  as  proroguing  Parliament,  adjourning 
the  Law  Courts,  removing  the  Exchequer,  forbidding 
the  holding  of  Fairs,  regulating  trade,  ordering  fasts, 
charities,  fires  in  the  streets,  etc.,  were  all  easily  ac- 
cessible in  print.  Here  also  should  be  included  the 
prohibition  by  foreign  powers  of  trade  with  England. 
I  have  read  all  these  in  1665  prints,  and,  of  course, 
Defoe  also  read  them,  as  neither  intuition  nor  genius 
could  have  invented  them  to  correspond  to  the  orig- 
inals in  all  respects.  And  it  is  here  necessary  to 
glance  at  one  of  the  almost  certain  sources  of  the 
Journal, — almost  certain,  because  it  contains  informa- 
tion which  would  have  been  difficult  for  Defoe  to  find 
elsewhere.  I  refer  to  the  newspaper,  or  "newsbook," 
as  it  was  then  called.  Despite  the  fact  that  on  the 
very  first  page  of  the  Journal  it  is  asserted  that  there 
were  "no  such  things  as  newspapers  in  those  days" — 
a  statement  so  gratuitous  as  to  arouse  suspicion — I 
must  believe  that  Defoe  made  use  of  the  newspapers  of 
1665. a  From  the  Newes,  and  the  Intelligencer,  both 
owned  and  edited  by  Sir  Roger  L  'Estrange,  could  be 
gleaned  all  the  Orders  and  Proclamations,  all  foreign 
and  domestic  news — the  weather,  the  crops,  move- 
ments of  the  fleet,  politics,  trade,  depredations  of  the 
Dutch  capers,  the  Bills  of  Mortality,  bounty  of  the 

8  Professor  W.  P.  Trent,  in  his  article  on  Defoe  ("Cambridge  His- 
tory of  English  Literature,"  IX,  p.  1),  makes  the  astounding 
statement  that,  aside  from  the  "Corantos"  (1622-1641)  and 
the  Civil  War  and  Commonwealth  newsbooks,  '  'there  existed  no 
real  newspaper,  no  news  periodical,  not  a  pamphlet  or  news- 
letter, until  the  appearance  of  the  'Oxford  Gazette'  in  1665." 
As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  "Gazette"  was  very  much  inferior  to 
the  "Newes"  and  the  "Intelligencer,"  which  had  been  pub- 
lished regularly  since  August  31,  1663.  The  "Gazette"  super- 
seded them  in  November,    1665. 

[52] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE    YEAR 

rich,  progress  of  the  Plague  throughout  the  kingdom, 
superstitious  yarns  reported  from  the  provinces  and 
abroad  (some  of  which  I  shall  reproduce  later),  and 
not  least  of  all,  stories  of  an  extraordinary  nature 
concerning  the  Plague,  as,  for  example,  the  case  of  the 
man  who  escaped  into  the  country  with  the  Plague 
upon  him,  and  died  within  a  mile  of  his  destination, 
and  the  one  who  polluted  a  town  by  being  entertained 
at  a  public  house — comparable  to  stories  related  by  De- 
foe. In  the  British  Museum,  in  the  famous  collection 
of  Dr.  Burney,  there  is  a  complete  file  of  newspapers 
covering  the  Plague  Year.  On  the  margin  of  each 
copy  of  the  Newes  (after  it  began  to  publish  the  Bills, 
early  in  June,  1665),  there  is  a  weekly,  and  total, 
summary  of  all  burials  and  of  all  reported  deaths  from 
the  Plague.  These  figures  are  in  ink,  and  a  comparison 
of  them  with  others  known  to  be  Defoe's,  shows  an 
identical  resemblance  in  every  respect.  That  these 
summaries  agree  with  those  in  the  Journal  proves 
nothing,  for  both  agree  with  the  Bills.  However,  one 
number  of  the  Neives  has  no  such  summary  on  the 
margin.  With  a  sharpened  curiosity,  we  turn  to  the 
Journal  for  the  corresponding  week  (ending  July  11, 
1665),  and  read  that  "there  died  last  week  1268  of  all 
distempers,  whereof  it  might  be  supposed  above  900 
died  of  the  plague. ' '  It  is,  I  believe,  the  only  instance 
where  Defoe  guesses  at  the  Bill.  But  as  he  might 
easily  have  supplied  the  correct  figures  by  a  mere 
glance  at  Bell's  or  Graunt's  tables,  it  would  be  rash 
to  assert  that  he  actually  used  the  very  newspapers  in 
question,  however  pleasing  the  idea.  On  the  other 
hand,  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  Journal  was 

[53] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

hastily  and  carelessly  put  together  from  notes  which 
Defoe  took  no  pains  to  verify.  The  wonder  is  that 
there  were  not  more  slips.  That  he  knew  of  the  news- 
papers of  1665  is  almost  certain ;  that  he  made  use  of 
them  in  writing  the  Journal  is  highly  probable. 

For  example,  the  newspapers  teemed  with  the  ad- 
vertisements of  quacks.  Powders  and  pills  and  mix- 
tures, which  formerly  had  done  service  as  sure-cures 
for  all  common  ailments,  immediately  became  poman- 
ders, electuaries,  lozenges,  plague  waters,  sovereign  in- 
ternal balsams,  tabellae  chymiatricae,  pellulae  pro- 
phylactica,  etc.,  etc.,  all  as  efficacious  for  preventing 
and  curing  plague  as  they  had  been  for  fevers  and 
whooping-cough.  Defoe  presents  us  with  four  of 
these,  "by  way  of  specimen,"  and  says  that  he  could 
give  you  ' '  two  or  three  dozen  of  the  like  and  yet  have 
abundance  left  behind/'  in  which  statement  he  was 
quite  within  " compass."  Not  only  were  the  people 
gulled  by  high-sounding  names,  but,  as  always,  they 
were  awed  by  the  authority  with  which  some  of  these 
advertisements  were  vaunted.  Thus,  in  the  Newes 
No.  58  (July  27,  1665)  : 

"A  sovereign  Medicine  for  the  prevention  and 
cure  of  the  Plague,  Fevers,  and  Smal  Pox,  invented 
and  practised  with  rare  success  by  the  famous  Doctor 
John  Baptist  von  Helmont,  is  now  exposed  for  sale." 
Another  remedy  was  named  after  Lady  Kent  who 
had  used  it  in  a  former  plague ;  one  was  recommended 
by  Lord  Ruthuen;  and  still  another  bore  the  sign- 
manual  of  Dr.  Thomas  Clayton,  physician  to  Charles 
I.  If  the  quack  took  on  a  pompous  name  and  claimed 
to  have  practised  abroad,  his  chances  of  success  were 

[54] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

greatly  enhanced.  For  example  (and  this  reminds 
one  not  only  of  Defoe 's  first  advertisement,  but  also  of 
the  quack  who  advertised  free  advice), 

"One  Doctor  Stephanus  Chrisolitus  a  famous 
Physitian,  lately  arrived  in  these  parts,  having 
travelled  in  several  Countries  which  have  been  af- 
fected with  the  Plague,  hath  found  by  experience  to  be 
very  beneficial  (by  the  blessing  of  God)  for  prevent- 
ing the  infection  thereof,  to  eat  Raisins  of  the  sun  in 
the  morning  fasting,  and  Malaga  Raisins  either  baked 
or  boiled;  and  this  he  hath  published  for  the  public 
good."4 

At  the  other  extreme  from  this  philanthropist  was 
the  rascal  who  advertised  a  concoction,  the  chief  in- 
gredient of  which  he  audaciously  asserted  to  be  pure 
gold,  for  which  he  charged  the  modest  price  of  twenty 
shillings  the  ounce !  Other  ruses  to  take  in  the  pub- 
lic were  not  wanting.  As  soon  as  the  College  of  Phy- 
sicians published  the  result  of  their  conference  as  to 
medicines  for  the  poor,  many  quacks  pounced  upon 
this  and  traded  upon  the  name,  'as  recommended  by 
the  College,'  etc.  However,  aside  from  gulling  the 
public,  it  probably  made  little  difference  in  the  end, 
as  the  College's  own  preparations  proved  utterly 
worthless.  Indeed,  Kemp  (Brief  Treatise  p.  3) 
classed  the  College  along  with  the  other  quacks  as 
publishing  ' '  observations  which  they  have  met  with  in 
the  cure  of  diseases, . . .  yet  not  one  medicine  found  out 
to  preserve  the  Doctor."5     Instinctively,  we  recall 

4  "Newes,"   No.   42. 

5  In  charity,   it  should  be  remembered  that  the  doctors  at  that  time 

had  scarcely  reached  the  experimental  stage  in  dealing  with 
plague.  Dr.  George  Thompson,  who  opened  a  victim  of  the 
Plague,    is    a    rare    exception.      Dr.    William   Boghurst    also    ren- 

[55] 


HISTORICAL    SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

the  names  of  Burnett,  Starkey,  Dey,  O'Dowd,  etc.  ; 
and,  truly,  when  we  scan  the  College's  "Necessary 
Directions,"  we  may  well  appreciate  Kemp's  sarcas- 
tic taunt.  Take,  for  instance,  the  following  (ed.  1721, 
p.  54)  for  bringing  carbuncles  and  blains  to  a  head: 
"Pull  off  the  feathers  from  the  tails  of  living  cocks, 
hens,  pigeons,  or  chickens,  and  holding  their  bills,  hold 
them  hard  to  the  botch  or  swelling,  and  so  keep  them 
at  that  part  until  they  die;  and  by  this  means  draw 
out  the  poison."  Dr.  Hodges,  himself  a  thoroughly 
modern  man  in  his  views  in  many  respects,  was  skepti- 
cal as  to  the  efficacy  of  the  powder  of  the  unicorn's 
horn,  but  at  the  same  time  recommended  dried  toad's 
powder!  After  Kemp's  severe  criticism  we  might 
expect  something  different  from  him  in  the  following 
prescription  (Brief  Treatise,  p.  55)  :  "Take  crabs' 
eyes  one  ounce,  burnt  hartshorn  half  an  ounce,  the 
black  tops  of  crabs '  claws  an  ounce  and  a  half ;  make 
them  all  into  a  powder,  and  take  of  it  one  dram  in  a 
glass  of  posset-drink  when  you  go  to  bed,  and  drink 
another  draught  of  posset-drink  after,  to  wash  it 
down. ' ' 

Not  only  were  the  common,  ignorant  sort  taken 
in  by  the  quacks'  specious  advertisements,  but  even 
the  more  intelligent  also  were  duped.  The  case  of  one 
Eustace  Burneby  is  in  point.  Trading  upon  the 
name  of  Dr.  Tobias  Whitaker,  physician  in  ordinary 
to  Charles  II,  he  secured  from  Robert  Boreman,  Rec- 

dered  great  service  to  science  by  making  most  careful  obser- 
vations of  the  distemper  in  all  its  stages  and  under  every  con- 
dition. He  visited  "40,  50,  or  60  patients  a  day,"  dressed 
the  sores  of  40  a  day,  ate  and  drank  with  the  patients,  allowed 
them  to  breathe  in  his  face,  and  held  them  in  his  arms  while 
they  were  dying.  Cf.  "Loimographia, "  and  "Intelligencer" 
No.  59. 

[56] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

tor  of  St.  Giles 's  in  the  Field,  and  from  the  sexton, 
John  Gerey,  an  affidavit  to  the  effect  that  in  four 
houses  where  divers  persons  had  died  of  the  Plague, 
after  administering  Burneby's  powder  to  the  sur- 
vivors in  those  houses,  not  one  thereafter  died ;  where- 
as in  houses  not  using  the  said  powder,  "divers  have 
died,  and  in  many  of  them  the  whole  family."8  At 
first  sight  this  looks  somewhat  suspicious,  but  when  we 
recall  that  at  that  very  moment  Lord  Arlington 
(Chief  Secretary  of  State)  and  the  Privy  Council 
were  being  completely  gulled  by  the  arch-quack  him- 
self, one  James  Angier,  who  professed  to  have  put  a 
stop  to  the  infection  at  Lyons,  Paris,  Toulouse  and  oth- 
er cities,  we  may  readily  credit  the  Rev.  Mr.  Boreman 
with  sincerity.  Official  sanction  was  given  to 
Angier 's  "remedies"  and  depots  were  designated 
where  they  might  be  had.  It  was  the  most  stupen- 
dous swindle  of  the  whole  year.7 

Likewise  the  belief  in  the  efficacy  of  magic  phil 
tres,  charms,  amulets,  etc.,  mentioned  by  Defoe  in  this 
connection,  was  not  confined  solely  to  the  lower  classes. 
Faith  in  this  superstition  still  survives  and  probably 
will  continue  to  live  as  long  as  man  does.  Within  a 
few  feet  of  where  I  now  sit  penning  these  lines,  there 
is  as  this  moment  on  the  table  of  an  unknown  co- 
worker no  fewer  than  four  or  five  bogey-frighteners 
which  are  always  propped  and  arranged  in  precisely 
the  same  relative  order  and  position,  before  the  in- 

6  "Intelligencer,"    No.   51. 

7  See    "Newes,"    No.    50.      Hodges    ( "Loimologia,"    p.    22)    alludes 

to  this  case,  without  mentioning  names,  in  most  disparaging 
terms.  It  should  be  observed  here  that  the  profession  of 
physick  was  at  that  time  divided  into  two  bitterly  opposing 
camps,  one  following  Galen,  the  other  Hippocrates.  To  all 
outward    appearances   their   practices    differed    little. 

[57] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

dividual  whom  they  own  begins  his  daily  work.  They 
differ  much  in  outward  appearance,  and,  presumably, 
in  satanic  virtues;  but  there  they  are  day  after  day, 
day  after  day,  and  one  imagines  that  they  are  simi- 
larly placed  on  a  shelf  at  the  foot  of  the  bed,  night 
after  night,  night  after  night.  And  who  has  not  car- 
ried a  rabbit's  foot,  pocket-piece,  wish-bone,  horse- 
shoe, or  the  like,  for  good  luck ;  or  worn  asaf oetida,  or 
some  such  lovely  stuff,  to  ward  off  small-pox,  or  some- 
thing else  ?  Well,  Defoe  had  any  number  of  examples 
of  1665  amulets  in  his  own  library,  or  otherwise  easily 
accessible.  A  few  of  these  may  not  prove  amiss  here. 
Kemp  (op.  tit.,  64)  recommends  the  following:  ''Take 
of  white  and  yellow  arsenick  of  each  half  an  ounce, 
the  powder  of  dried  toads  two  ounces,  mercury  sub- 
limed, wheat  flowre,  the  roots  of  dittany,  of  each  three 
drams,  saffron,  the  fragments  of  jacynth  and  emer- 
ald, of  each  one  scruple,  make  them  all  into  powder, 
and  with  gum  dragon  dissolved  in  rose-water,  make 
them  into  cakes  about  the  breadth  of  a  shilling,  and 
the  thickness  of  two  half  crowns,  and  dry  them  in  the 
sun,  or  in  an  oven  after  the  bread  is  taken  out. 

1 '  I  need  not  tell  you  that  you  must  not  eat  them, 
but  sew  them  in  a  little  silk  bag,  fastening  it  to  a  rib- 
bon, and  hanging  it  about  your  neck,  let  it  be  about 
the  middle  of  your  breast."  Kemp  does  not  explain 
just  what  effect  the  tablet  thus  made  and  worn  had, 
and  we  must  look  to  other  authorities  for  enlighten- 
ment. Fortunately  these  are  numerous.  Dr.  George 
Thompson,  whom  I  have  mentioned  as  having  dared  to 
dissect  a  corpse  dead  of  the  plague,  showed  the  unmis- 
takeable  symptoms  of  the  disease  before  the  operation 

[58] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

was  finished.  He  analyzes  his  own  case  with  much 
praiseworthy  detail,  and  the  treatment  thereof.  He 
first  had  resort  to  the  remedies  then  commonly  used 
to  produce  sweating,  and  then  proceeds,  ' '  Neither  was 
I  wanting  to  make  use  of  Helmont's  xenexton,  a  toad, 
the  powder  of  which  my  dear  friend  Dr.  Starkey  gave 
me,  made  up  in  the  form  of  a  trochisk  of  his  own  or- 
dering: I  likewise  hung  about  my  neck  a  large  toad 
dried,  prepared  not  long  before  in  as  exquisite  a  man- 
ner as  I  possibly  could,  with  my  own  fingers.  This 
toad  sewed  up  in  a  linnen  cloth  was  placed  about  the 
region  of  my  stomach,  where  after  it  had  remained 
some  hours,  became  so  tumefied,  distended  (as  it  were 
blown  up)  to  that  bignesse,  that  it  was  an  object  of 
wonder  to  those  that  beheld  it.  Had  I  not  felt  and 
seen  this  swollen  dead  body  of  the  toad,  I  should  very 
much  have  doubted  by  relation  the  truth  thereof."8 
John  Allin  is  even  more  explicit  as  to  the  working  of 
the  toad  charm.  "Here  [in  London]/'  he  says,  "are 
many  who  wear  amulets  made  of  the  poison  of  the 
toad,  which,  if  there  be  no  infection,  workes  nothing, 
but  upon  any  infection  invading  from  time  to  time, 
raise  a  blister,  wch  a  plaister  heales,  and  so  they  are 
well."9  The  same  writer  is  also  responsible  for  the 
following  rare  gem: 

"Friend  get  a  piece  of  angell  gold,  if  you  can 
of  Eliz.  coine  (y*  is  y6  best),  wch  is  phylosophicall  gold, 
and  keepe  it  allways  in  yor  mouth  when  you  walke  out 
or  any  sicke  persons  come  to  you:  you  will  find 
strange  effect  of  it  for  good  in  freedome  of  breathing, 


8  "Loimotomia, "  p.  86. 

9  "Archaelogia,"   xxxvii,   p.   6. 


[59] 


HISTORICAL    SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

&c.  as  I  have  done;  if  you  lye  wth  it  in  your  mouth 
wthout  yor  teeth,  as  I  doe,  viz.  in  one  side  betweene 
your  cheke  and  gumms,  and  so  turning  it  sometimes 
on  one  side,  sometimes  on  ye  other."10 

The  superstitions  of  the  people  at  the  time  of  the 
1665  Plague  may  appear  to  modern  minds  as  having 
been  exaggerated  by  Defoe.  "The  people,"  he  says, 
' '  from  what  principle  I  cannot  imagine,  were  more  ad- 
dicted to  prophecies  and  astrological  conjunctions, 
dreams,  and  old  wives'  tales  than  ever  they  were  be- 
fore or  since."  This  is  literally  true,  and,  although 
making  excellent  use  of  the  fact,  early  in  the  Journal, 
to  impress  upon  the  reader  the  apprehensive  state  of 
mind  in  which  people  found  themselves  at  the  out- 
break of  the  Plague,  due  to  the  terrifying  predictions 
of  astrologers,  fortune-tellers,  and  the  like,  Defoe 
barely  states  the  conditions  of  the  time  in  this  respect. 
That  these  conditions  were,  to  a  certain  extent,  the  re- 
sult of  money-making  quacks,  as  suggested  by  Defoe, 
there  is  no  doubt.  But  the  chief  explanation  is  a 
psychological  one:  the  astrologers  (of  which  no  other 
age  produced  so  many)  were  quite  as  much  the  result 
of  the  mental  state  of  the  people  as  the  other  way 
about.  This  view  is  carried  out  by  the  fact  that  a 
belief  in  portents  and  prodigies  was  not  confined  to 
the  ignorant  classes  alone,  but  possessed  all  ranks  of 
society,  save  the  rare  few.  The  almost  universal  be- 
lief at  that  time — held  by  the  mediaeval  mind  of  all 
times — that  the  Plague  was  a  special  scourge  for 
man's  sins  (some  gave  one  reason,  some  another,  as 
suited  their  political  and  religious  prejudices),  was 

10  "Archselogia,"  xxxvii,  p.  15. 

[60] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

but  a  short  step  removed  from  a  certain  belief  in  fore- 
warnings  of  that  scourge.  Upon  this  predisposition 
to  ascribe  all  calamities  of  whatever  nature  to  super- 
natural causes,  the  astrologers  multiplied  and  bat- 
tened.11 The  way  in  which  they  fondled  and  fostered 
the  superstitious  state  of  mind,  already  prepossessed 
of  fantasies,  may  be  seen  from  the  following  extract 
from  Gadbury's  De  Cometis  (1665,  p.  48)  : 

"Now,  although  I  have  a  great  faith  in  appari- 
tions of  this  nature  [i.  e.  comets]  ;  and  knowing  that 
melancholy  heads,  by  the  strength  of  fancy  and  imag- 
ination, may  conceit  they  see  such  things  that  really 
are  not:  yet,  when  such  fancies  shall  really  possess 
the  general  opinion,  it  is  to  be  presumed  that  some- 
what more  than  common  is  contriving  against  the  gen- 
erality of  mankind.  As  we  see  it  in  any  individual 
person  that  is  engaged  in  any  business  of  concern- 
ment, if  there  be  perturbario  mentis,  or  (as  we  used  to 
say)  if  his  heart  misgive  him,  or  that  he  be  in  his  own 
mind  perswaded  he  shall  be  worsted  or  come  to  dam- 
age in  his  undertaking,  he  is  more  than  half  van- 
quished before  he  come  to  the  trial.  Our  fears  but 
apt  and  prepare  us  for  the  embraces  of  that  mischief 
we  dread.  And  indeed  the  world  not  of  late,  vainly 
feared  such  mischiefs  as  these  comets  portend;  but 
as  soon  as  they  have  begun  to  fear,  they  have  been 
compelled  to  share  therein.     I  need  not  instance  in  the 

11  Appended  to  "Coelestis  Legatus,"  Gadbury  gives  a  list  of  forty- 
two  astrologers  "who  either  are  (or  were  lately)  living."  This 
included  the  names  of  "many  Reverend  Divines,  and  learned 
Physicians."  This  does  not  include  the  "pseudo-Astronomers, 
or  knap-sack  Astrologers,  for  not  only  this  Age  but  this  great 
City  swarms  with  such  Cattell."  "De  Cometis,"  p.  2.  Defoe's 
reference  to  signs  bearing  the  heads  of  Friar  Bacon,  Ambrose 
Merlin,  and  Mother  (i.  e.  Ursula)  Shipton  is  self-explanatory: 
these  names  were  synonyms   of  prophecy  and  magic. 

[61] 


HISTORICAL    SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S    JOURNAL 

activity  of  the  sword,  or  the  incroaehing  quality  of  the 
sickness,  both  which  are  playing  their  parts  to  pur- 
pose all  Europe  over,  and  will  more  within  a  few 
years.  For  the  world  must  know  and  believe  it  as  a 
truth,  THAT  COMETS  ARE  NOT  GONE  AS  SOON 
AS  THEY  DISAPPEAR." 

Despite  Hodges 's  assertion  {Loimologia,  p.  4) 
that  people  of  the  better  (i.  e.  more  intelligent)  sort 
gave  little  credence  to  such  predictions,  we  read  in 
Dr.  George  Thompson's  Loimotomia  (1666,  p.  66), 
"That  comets,  or  blazing  stars  do  portend  some  evil 
to  come  upon  mortals,  is  confirmed  by  long  observa- 
tion and  sad  experience,  as  likewise  phenomena  of  a 
Parelios,  Paraselene,  apparitions  of  Dracones  volantes 
&  Trahes  Scintillae,  new  stars,  battles  fought,  and  cof- 
fins carried  through  the  air,  howlings,  screechings,  and 
groans  heard  about  church-yards,  also  raining  of 
blood,  unwonted  matter,  &c,  all  of  which  having  some- 
thing extra  naturam,  are  portentious  and  prodigious, 
all  ordained  by  that  good  Philanthropos  to  advertise 
us  to  a  timely  resipiscence,  and  prevention  of  those 
evils  that  hang  over  our  heads."  And  Hodges,  not- 
withstanding his  contempt  for  astrologers,  felt  com- 
pelled {op.  cit.,  p.  31)  to  acknowledge  the  certain 
"footsteps  of  an  overruling  power"  in  the  Plague  of 

1665.  Even  Dr.  William  Boghurst   (LoimograpMa, 

1666,  pr.  1894,  p.  20),  while  branding  the  prognosti- 
cators  as  "those  curious  observers  who  pretend  to  bee 
most  exquisite  on  the  foresight  of  future  contingencies 
of  good  or  evile,  and  a  haire  shall  not  wagge  without 
their  observation,  and  therefore  in  their  yearly  pre- 
diction fill  the  world  with  noyses  of  warrs,  plagues, 

[62] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

destruction,  and  overthrowes  of  kingdomes,  mon- 
archies, that  to  this  [Plague  of  1665]  said  nothing  at 
all,12  yet  they  will  name  the  Starrs  to  be  all  in  the 
fault," — nevertheless,  includes  in  his  signs  fore- 
shadowing a  plague,  "Cometts,  gleames  of  Fire,  and 
fiery  impressions  in  the  Aire, ' '  ' '  Famine ;  also  warr, ' ' 
"ill  conditions  of  the  Starrs,  if  you  will  believe  the 
Astrologers,"  etc. 

Of  course,  the  astrologers,  without  an  exception, 
looked  upon  conjunctions,  comets,  and,  indeed,  all 
exceptional  phenomena,  as  forerunners  of  evil  things, 
and  comets  in  particular  were  terrible  presages. 
Thus,  John  Holwell  (Catastrophe  Mundi,  p.  40),  writ- 
ing a  few  years  after  the  Plague  and  Fire,  asserted 
that  these  calamities  had  been  clearly  foreshadowed 
by  the  comets  of  1664  and  1665  respectively.  After 
such  dire  examples,  he  continues,  "what  man  is  he 
who  dare  presume  to  say  that  comets  are  not  the  pre- 
monishers  to  mankind,  of  some  more  than  ordinary 
Judgment  to  fall  upon  them  for  their  sins ; ' '  and  John 
Merrifield  (Castastasis  Mundi,  p.  28)  is  in  accord 
when  he  says  that  comets  "proceed  not  from  natural 
causes  .  .  .  but  from  Divine  Providence,  and  sent  by 
Almighty  God  as  tokens  of  his  wrath  against  mankind 
for  his  sins. ' '  But  to  quote  all  the  1665  ' '  authorities ' ' 
on  comets,  conjunctions  of  planets,  and  other  "pro- 
digies," would  require  volumes.  The  bookstalls  of 
that  time  were  literally  stuffed  with  ' '  almanacks, ' '  the 

12  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Richard  Edlyn  did  predict  both  the  Plague 
of  1665  and  the  Fire  of  1666  ( "Prae-Nuncius  Sydereus,"  72). 
It  was  such  lucky  (or  unlucky)  guessing  as  this  that  inspired 
the  ignorant  to  believe  in  portents,  and  thus  increased  the  mis- 
chievous apprehensions  mentioned  by  Defoe  and  the  other  writers 
on  the  Plague. 

[63] 


HISTORICAL    SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S    JOURNAL 

result  of  a  popular  demand,  and  it  is  safe  to  say  that 
everyone  was  steeped  in  their  contents.  William 
Lilly  (1602-1681),  mentioned  by  Defoe,  held  the  place 
of  preeminence  among  the  astrologers  of  the  day,  and, 
in  addition  to  many  prophecies,  published  his  alma- 
nacks annually  from  1644  until  his  death.  A  far 
greater  and  more  influential  man  was  John  Gadbury 
(1627-1704)  who  completely  combined  the  careful  ob- 
servations of  the  scientist  with  the  quack  predictions 
of  the  astrologer.13  As  far  as  his  instruments  would 
permit,  he  exactly  measured  and  recorded  the  pheno- 
mena of  the  heavens  year  after  year,  and  then  as  in- 
dustriously proceeded  to  prognosticate  their  effects. 
Like  his  contemporaries,  all  apparent  irregularities  of 
nature  were  interpreted  by  him  as  portents.  Among 
an  infinite  variety  of  choice  prodigies  seen  or  heard  in 
the  skies,  Gadbury  enumerates  (Natura  Prodigiorum, 

13  The  other  names  and  titles  mentioned  by  Defoe  on  the  same 
page  with  Lilly  and  Gadbury  may  as  well  be  disposed  of  here. 
A  book  entitled  "Come  out  of  her  my  People"  may,  or  may  not, 
have  existed.  As  everybody  knows,  Defoe's  quotation  is  di- 
rectly from  "Revelations,"  xviii,  4.  He  gives  his  source  for 
"Yet  forty  days  and  London  shall  be  destroyed."  The  original 
text  ("Jonah,"  iii,  4)  reads,  "Yet  forty  days  and  Nineveh  shall 
be  overthrown."  "Oh  the  great  and  dreadful  Godl"  is  at  once 
recognised  as  from  "Daniel,"  ix,  4.  It  has  been  mentioned 
already  that  "Woe  to  Jerusalem"  and  the  naming  sword  are 
from  Josephus  ("Works,"  ed.  1773,  Bk.  vii,  ch.  12).  There 
are  any  number  of  "Britain's  Remembrancers."  George  With- 
ers gave  that  title  to  his  history  of  the  Plague  of  1625.  Again, 
in  1644,  there  was  published  "England's  Remembrancer,  or  a 
Warning  from  Heaven,"  etc.  "Warning"  was  a  common  sub- 
title during  that  age  of  prophecies.  Thus,  '  'Prodigies  &  Appa- 
ritions, or  England's  Warning  Pieces,"  1643.  This  book  con- 
tains the  expression,  "fair  warning,"  which  may  have  fur- 
nished Defoe  with  his  title.  It  also  narrated  a  sufficient  number 
of  "prodigies"  to  supply  Defoe  with  all  his  materials  on  that 
topic.  In  one  instance,  viz.,  "Poor  Robin's  Almanack,"  Defoe 
never  saw  more  than  the  title,  for  this  book  was  a  broad  bur- 
lesque of  the  astrological  trumpery  of  the  times.  For  example, 
Poor  Robin  records  this  wisdom  for  February,  1664:  "This  month 
this  year  hath  twenty  and  nine  days  in  it;  now  if  it  had  two 
more  it  would  have  thirty  and  one."  The  following  month,  "the 
fishmonger's  harvest,"  is  filled  with  a  series  of  puns  on  plaice, 
carp,   maids,   soles,  pout,   etc. 

[64] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

1660,  p.  14)  "burials,  processions,  combats,  weapons 
of  all  sorts,  crowns  and  sceptres,  naming  swords  and 
crosses,  castles,  cities,  towers,  monsters,  comets, 
eclipses,  etc.,  etc.  He  then  arranges  all  these  in  a 
chronological  table  of  "prodigies  with  their  effects," 
extending  over  forty-six  pages  and  covering  the  years 
from  the  birth  of  Christ  down  to  1660.  Blazing  stars, 
swords  and  crosses  are  frequent  "causes,"  followed 
by  plague,  war,  famine,  etc. 

In  London's  Deliverance  Predicted  (July,  1665), 
Gadbury  deals  directly  with  the  Great  Plague  in  rela- 
tion to  certain  "causes."  Among  these,  he  specifies 
the  conjunction  of  Saturn  and  Jupiter,  October  10, 
1663,  of  Saturn  and  Mars,  November  12,  1664,14  the 
two  comets  at  the  close  of  1664,  and  the  comet  which 
appeared  early  in  1665. 15  Aside  from  his  predictions 
in  this  characteristic  book,  Gadbury 's  testimony  as  to 
the  outbreak  of  the  Plague  in  1664  is  of  so  much  inter- 
est as  to  justify  its  quotation  in  part.  Commenting 
on  the  comets  and  conjunctions  just  mentioned,  he 
says :  ' '  By  this  connexion  of  causes,  it  is  somewhat  ap- 
parent that  this  Pest  should  have  taken  its  beginning 
at  the  later  end  of  1664 ;  and  truly  had  not  the  Winter 

14  It   will   be   recalled    that   Defoe    speaks    of   these    two    conjunctions 

as  if  they  both  occurred,  in  1664.  This  slip  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  he  followed  Hodges,  who  did  not  give  dates. 

15  According   to   the   usual    account    there   was    but    one   comet   at   the 

close  of  1664.  Defoe  mentions  only  one  comet  in  1664  and  one 
in  1665,  and  he  deals  with  these  as  to  appearance,  colour,  motion, 
etc.,  as  presaging  symbols  of  the  Plague  and  Fire  respectively. 
These  descriptions  of  Defoe's  are  in  direct  opposition  to  those 
of  M.  Adrien  Auzout,  the  eminent  French  astronomer  of  the  day, 
who  recorded  his  observations  of  one  comet  in  1664  and  one  in 
1665.  Defoe  has  been  accredited  with  reversing  the  characteris- 
tics of  these  two  comets  (cf.  E.  W.  Brayley,  ed.  "Journal,'' 
1872,  p.  29)  "for  purposes  of  heightening  the  interest."  Gad- 
bury, however,  ("De  Cometis, "  31  sq.  and  "Coelestis  Legatus, " 
62)  has  definitely  and  accurately  recorded  three  comets  in  all  in 
1664-5      Two    of    these    exactly    fit    Defoe's    descriptions. 

[65] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

then  been  so  extreamly  sharp  (it  having  a  frost  of  al- 
most ten  weeks  continuance  together)  to  have  kept  it 
back,  as  we  knew  it  did,  it  had  beyond  all  question 
broke  forth  then.  Nay,  and  break  forth  it  did  then 
too,  as  my  self  can  experimentally  testify,  having  been 
personally  visited  with  it  at  Christmas  that  year. 
And  my  good  friend  Mr.  Josias  Westwood  the  chirur- 
geon  (whose  assistance  I  then  craved,  and  advice  I 
followed  (I  bless  God)  to  my  preservation)  hath  told 
me  since  that  many  of  his  patients  at  that  time  were 
afflicted  with  the  same  distemper,  and  yet  obtained 
cure  against  it,  the  air  being  then  so  friendly  to 
nature,  and  an  enemy  unto  the  Pestilence.  And  be- 
sides, it  was  but  president  in  people  to  keep  it  from 
the  knowledge  of  the  world  (since  few  or  none  dyed 
thereof)  as  long  as  they  could ;  for  we  find  that  it  came 
to  a  discovery  soon  enough  to  amaze  and  terrifie  the 
whole  Nation,  and  hath  bid  fair  for  the  ruin  of  trade 
of  all  kinds  in  this  great  and  populous  city." 

That  the  astrologers,  with  their  nativity  dia- 
grams, "airy  triplicities, ' '  etc.,  had  succeeded  thor- 
oughly in  bamboozling  the  people  is  evidenced  by  vari- 
ous newsletters  from  every  portion  of  England  and 
the  Continent,  on  the  appearance  of  the  first  comet  in 
December,  1664.  Many  of  these  letters,  after  relating 
the  facts  respecting  the  comet,  turn  to  the  ' '  wisemen ' ' 
and  ' ' artists "  "to  enquire  what  it  may  portend. ' '  A 
letter  from  York  (dated  December  18,  1664)  to  Gad- 
bury  closes  with  the  request  that,  "you  will  not  only 
oblige  me,  but  many  of  my  friends  hereabouts,  very 
much,  if  you  will  but  vouchsafe  your  opinion  in  a 
line  or  two  from  your  own  hand,  what  this  strange 

[66] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE    YEAR 

new  Star  may  portend."18  Some  of  these  letters  con- 
cerning the  comet  reported  other  occompanying  "pro- 
digies/' comparable  to  some  of  those  mentioned  by 
Defoe.  In  a  newsletter  from  Hamburgh,  December 
24,  1664  (published  in  Newes,  January  5,  1665),  we 
read  that  "The  great  Comet  lately  seen  here,  appears 
no  longer  with  us;  but  here  is  now  another,  much 
less  then  the  formar,  rising  South-East,  and  setting 
North- West.  They  write  from  Vienna  by  the  last 
[mail] ,  of  a  great  Comet  seen  there  also,  shewing  itself 
first  from  the  East,  and  pointing  toward  Hungary. 
There  has  been  likewise  seen  in  the  ayre  the  appear- 
ance of  a  Coffin,  which  causes  great  anxiety  of  thought 
among  the  people."  From  Erfurt  came  still  more 
alarming  accounts.  "We  have  had  our  part  here," 
so  runs  the  letter,  "of  the  Comet,  as  well  as  other 
Places,  besides  which,  here  have  been  other  terrible 
Apparitions  and  Noises  in  the  ayre,  as  Fires,  and 
sounds  of  Canon,  and  Musket-shot ;  and  here  has  like- 
wise appear 'd  several  times  the  resemblance  of  a  Black 
man,  which  has  made  our  Sentinels  to  quit  their  Posts ; 
and  one  of  them  was  lately  thrown  down  by  him  from 
the  top  of  the  Wall." 

As  intimated  elsewhere  in  the  course  of  this  essay, 
it  is  likely  that  Defoe  may  have  got  at  least  some  of  his 
superstitious  stories,  as  for  instance  the  coffin  appari- 
tion, from  the  newspapers;  but  as  all  these  "prod- 
igies" were  common  to  the  superstittion  of  the  times, 

16  The  strong  belief  in,  and  the  fearful  apprehensions  occasioned  by, 
predictions  of  calamities,  is  well  illustrated  by  the  prophecy  of 
a  mere  child,  when  the  Plague  was  at  its  height  in  1665,  that 
the  mortality  would  increase  ''till  18,317  dye  in  a  weeke  (which 
all  endeavors  are  used  to  conceale)."  "ATchaelogia"  xxxvii, 
15.  In  Seville,  an  astrologer  was  "clapt  up"  because  some  of 
his  predictions  of  dire  events  came  true,  and  the  authorities 
wished  to  allay  the  apprehensions  of  the  people. 

[67] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

it  cannot  always  be  said  with,  certainty  that  any  given 
original  was  Defoe's  source  of  authority.  For  ex- 
ample, Gadbnry  copied  the  Hamburgh  letter  just 
quoted  (De  Cometis,  p.  48)  and  as  it  is  comparatively 
certain  that  Defoe  had  read  Gadbury  he  may  have 
found  it  there.  In  the  case  of  the  naming  sword  in 
the  Journal,  as  Defoe  had  quoted  the  Josephus  book  a 
few  pages  earlier,  we  may  assume  that  authority  to 
be  the  source  of  that  superstition.  At  any  rate,  even 
the  few  extracts  and  references  which  I  have  given  to 
the  superstitions  of  the  times,  and  the  influence  of  the 
astrologers  in  perturbing  the  public  mind  with  appre- 
hensions of  dreadful  and  dreaded  events,  will  serve  to 
indicate  what  a  storehouse  of  materials  Defoe  had  to 
draw  from  in  writing  this  part  of  his  Journal.  Defoe 
possessed,  among  other  books  of  a  similar  character, 
the  "Prophecies"  of  Notradamus  which  had  been  re- 
published in  English  by  Lilly  in  1651,  and  again  by 
Holwell  in  1682.  Both  these  editions  contained  the 
numerous  drawings  or  "hieroglyphics"  of  the  orig- 
inal. Moreover,  besides  the  chronicles  (of  which  De- 
foe owned  three  or  four)  and  the  numerous  alma- 
nacks, already  mentioned,  there  were  the  easily  acces- 
sible works  of  Wing,  Wharton,  Tacke,  Mother  Ship- 
ton,  Ashmole,  Ardee,  Saunders,  Booker,  Marsh,  Wells, 
Flood,  Hopton,  Vaux,  etc.,  ad  infinitum. 

For  the  fortune-telling  quacks,  the  astrologer 
quacks  had  as  much  contempt  as  Defoe  had  for  both. 
Gadbury  says  of  them  (op.  cit.  164)  that  "so  common 
and  general  are  these  catching  errors  become,  that  it 
is  now  a  most  difficult  and  hard  matter  to  distinguish 
a  plow-man  from  a  natural  philosopher  from  his  dis- 

[68] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

course.     And  ...  as  in  former  times  it  was  a  rare  mat- 
ter to  find  seven  wise  men  in  the  world,  it  is  now  as  dif- 
ficult and  troublesome  to  discover  the  same  number 
of  fools.     Every  man,  almost,  that  hath  scarcely  ar- 
rived at  the  happiness  of  reading  a  Horn-book,  ac- 
counts all  things  that  come  within  the  parcimeter  or 
compass  of  discourse  beneath  him  and  his  genius  .  .  . 
that  treateth  not  of  the  raising  of  spirits   of  some 
periapt,  amulet,  or  magical  charm  or  spell. ' '     Of  these 
fortune-tellers   there   were   two    classes, — those   who 
for  "fame  and  money  impose  upon  the  understanding 
of  simple-minded,  credulous  people,"  and,  secondly, 
"a  company  of  poor,  melancholy,  crack-brain 'd  shal- 
low-soul'd  creatures,  born  as  well  to  spread  lies  and 
impostures  as  to  credit  and  believe  them."      (This 
from  the  author  of  Natura  Prodigiorum!)     In  which 
of  these  classes  Gadbury  would  catalogue  the  follow- 
ing, I  will  leave  to  the  reader  to  decide.     He  relates 
(op.  cit.  174)  that  Sir  K.  Digbie  once  trapped  "that 
Arch-pretender,    Dr.    Lamb"    in    his    knavery,    and 
threatened  to  kick  him  down  the  stairs;  upon  which 
circumstance  he  comments :   "I  am  of  belief  the  appli- 
cation of  this  story  will  reach  (if  not  over-reach)  the 
consciences  and  practices  of  some  among  us  that  wear 
the  golden  name  of  Astrologers  who  very  commonly, 
under  pretence  thereof,  make  use  of  a  Christal,  and 
other  pretended  cheats  and  shifts,  to  gull  the  sillier 
sort  of  people.     Nay,  they  are  made  use  of  sometimes 
to  persons  at  very  great  rates  (viz.  six  pounds  a  call, 
as  they  knavishly  call  it)  even  to  their  undoing,  and  to 
the  great  scandal  of  Astrologie  (which,  as  it  is  dealt 
with,  is  the  only  over-cheat  of  these  times)  and,  in- 

[69] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

deed,  to  the  shipwreck  and  ruin  of  the  practitioner's 
conscience,  honesty,  and  good  name.  Nay,  the  vil- 
lainy is  grown  so  rife  and  common  now  among  us,  that 
he  is  not  worthy  (almost)  to  be  deemed  an  astrologer, 
that  cannot  stretch  both  his  conscience  and  skill,  like 
unto  those  persons  touched,  who  by  their  practices 
should  be  of  Cacus's  progeny,  because  they  so  emi- 
nently pretend  to  make  with  him, 

Candida  de  nigris,  &  de  candentibus  arra." 
So  much  for  that  feature  of  the  Journal  dealing 
with  the  superstition  and  gullibility  of  the  people. 
Of  a  different  character  from  statistics,  proclamations, 
advertisements,  almanacks,  etc.,  are  the  sources  treat- 
ing of  the  history  of  the  Plague, — its  origin,  its  first 
appearance  in  London,  its  progress,  ravages  and  de- 
cline— which  supplied  Defoe  with  that  necessary  ele- 
ment of  his  narrative.  Too  much  importance  cannot 
be  attached  to  these  sources,  as  they  brought  to  Defoe 
something  more  than  mere  facts,  they  lent  him  lan- 
guage and  ''atmosphere."  In  1722,  there  were  no 
fewer  than  two  score  volumes  on  the  subject  of  plague, 
some  mere  pamphlets,  some  treating  only  of  the  pre- 
vention and  cure  of  the  disease,  while  others  combined 
the  treatment  with  the  history  of  plague.  About  one- 
half  of  these  volumes  refer  to  the  Plague  of  1665, 
while  some  of  them  ante-date  it.  It  is  needless  to  go 
over  the  list  of  these,  as  the  mass  of  them  were  of  little 
use  to  Defoe  in  the  composition  of  the  Journal. 
Kemp 's  Brief  Treatise,  the  author  of  Golgotha,  the  au- 
thor of  Shutting  up  Infected  Houses,  and  a  few  others 
mentioned  in  Section  I  contributed  certain  aspects: 
but,  in  the  main,  Defoe  relied  upon  very  few  sources 

[70] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

for  the  skeleton  of  his  narrative.     Foremost  amongst 
these  stands  Dr.  Nathaniel  Hodges,  so  frequently  men- 
tioned in  the  course  of  this  discussion.     That  his  work 
was  freely  drawn  upon  by  Defoe  has  long  been  known 
to  scholars,  but,  inasmuch  as  no  one  hitherto  has  had 
the  curiosity,  or  courage,  to  analyze  the  Journal  with 
reference  to  Loimologia,  the  tremendous  debt  which 
the  former  owes  to  the  latter  has  never  been  fully  ap- 
preciated.    Hodges 's  "Historical  Account "  fills  less 
than  thirty  octavo  pages ;  yet  Defoe  not  only  took  over 
practically  every  item  contained  in  Hodges 's  account, 
but  in  almost  every  instance  followed  him  so  closely 
as  to  copy  his  errors,  and  repeated  his  subject  matter 
so   many  times   that   the   materials   borrowed   from 
Loimologia  gave  Defoe  his  starting  point  no  fewer 
than  one  hundred  and  twenty-five  times, — and  this 
does  not  take  into  account  the  numerous  instances 
where  the  narration  or  discussion  (as  e.  g.  of  shutting 
up)  extends  over  a  number  of  pages,  such  cases  being 
counted  only  once  in  the  sum  total!     This  statement 
appears  incredible,  but  any  one  who  will  take  the  pains 
to  analyze  Hodges 's  "Account,"  and  then  the  Jour- 
nal, will  find  it  true  "within  compass," — albeit  some 
idols  may  get  broken  in  the  process. 

Before  me  as  I  write  I  have  such  an  analysis,  with 
the  result  as  stated.  Even  the  digressionary  style  of 
Hodges  is  followed  by  Defoe,  and  the  former's  account 
of  the  origin  of  the  1665  Plague  might  easily  be  mis- 
taken for  the  opening  paragraph  of  the  Journal,  both 
as  to  style  and  content.17     A  synopsis  of  Hodges 's  ac- 

17  I  have  traced  the  progress  of  the  distemper  over  Europe  before 
it  got  to  England,  but  space  forbids  going  into  this.  Suffice 
it  to   say   that   Defoe's   account   is   strictly   historical. 

[71] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

count  of  the  Plague  will  serve  to  illustrate  the  extent 
of  Defoe's  reliance  upon  that  single  source,  a  brief 
outline  of  which  follows.  According  to  Hodges,  the 
distemper  came  to  Holland  in  a  parcel  of  infected 
goods  from  Smyrna,  and  from  Holland  to  England 
where  it  suddenly  appeared  in  London  near  the  close 
of  1664,  when  three  died  of  it.  Some  people  took 
alarm  and  moved  into  the  City ;  wild  rumours  and  pre- 
dictions terrified  the  common  sort  whose  very  fears 
precipitated  the  distemper.  Their  apprehensions 
were  further  augmented  by  the  appearance  of  the 
comet  and  the  conjunctions  of  Saturn  and  Jupiter, 
and  Saturn  and  Mars,  followed  by  the  terrifying  pre- 
dictions of  astrologers.  Hodges  deplores  this  fear- 
mongering.  A  hard  frost,  lasting  three  months,  lulled 
people  into  a  belief  of  security;  but  about  Christmas 
Hodges  is  called  to  a  case  which  he  pronounced  to  be 
plague.  With  the  breaking  up  of  the  frost  in  the 
Spring  of  1665,  the  disease  reappeared  and  soon 
gained  ground.  The  Magistrates  issued  a  shutting-up 
order,  but  the  efficacy  of  the  practice  is  questioned, 
and,  on  the  whole,  condemned,  though  there  is  some- 
thing to  be  said  on  the  other  side,  especially  at  the  first 
appearance  of  the  distemper.  It  was  decreed  that  all 
infected  houses  must  be  marked  with  a  red  cross  and 
the  "Lord  have  mercy"  sign  over  the  door,  a  guard 
placed  outside  to  prevent  the  inmates  from  escaping, 
and  to  pass  in  food  and  medicine  to  those  shut  up.  The 
establishment  of  a  forty-days  quarantine  (according 
to  the  printed  "Orders,"  it  was  only  four  weeks),  to 
be  counted  from  the  last  one  infected  in  a  shut  up 
house,  caused  consternation  and  mischief,  for  this  or- 

[72] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

der  and  the  "tragical  mark  over  the  door''  frightened 
many  neighbours  away  who  might  have  been  of  service 
in  saving  lives.  The  dishonest  and  murderous  prac- 
tices of  wicked  nurses  cannot  be  too  strongly  con- 
demned. A  strange  symptom  of  the  disease  was  an 
insane  or  perverse  pleasure  the  infected  manifested  of 
breathing  into  the  faces  of  the  well.18 

The  Plague  "doubtfully  reigned"  throughout 
May  and  June,  "sometimes  raging  in  one  part,  and 
then  in  another. ' '  The  minds  of  the  people  fluctuated 
with  the  Bills:  "as  often  as  the  funerals  decreased, 
great  hopes  were  conceived  of  its  [the  Plague's]  dis- 
appearance, then  on  a  sudden  again  their  increase 
threw  all  into  dejection."  This  caused  the  in- 
habitants to  leave  precipitously,  and  they  "flocked  in 
such  crowds  out  of  town,  as  if  London  had  quite  gone 
out  of  itself. "  In  an  effort  to  stem  the  tide  of  devas- 
tation, the  authorities  ordered  monthly  fasts  and  pub- 
lic prayers,  and  commanded  the  College  of  Physicians 
to  prepare  some  remedy  in  English  for  the  poor  peo- 
ple, who  were  the  chief  sufferers  in  this  calamity. 
But  their  labours  proved  in  vain.  A  number  of  emi- 
nent physicians  tendered  their  assistance;  yet,  al- 
though the  weather  conditions  were  good  and  food 
plentiful,19  the  ravages  of  the  disease  continued  un- 
abated. In  July  and  August  it  changed  its  former 
slow    and    languid    pace    to    a    swift    and    terrible 

18  Mead    ("Short    Discourse,"    8th    ed.,    p.    xvii)    repeats    this    state- 

ment and  offers  an  explanation  for  the  cause  of  the  symptom. 
Defoe  rehashes  the  same  explanation,  but,  in  a  sort  of  mock 
piety,  does  not  see  how  the  fact  can  be   "reconciled  to  religion." 

19  Hodges    is    here    misleading.       He    himself    calls    it    the     "poor's 

Plague,"  and  all  the  sources  (and  Defoe)  agree  that  the  poor 
suffered  greatly  for  the  very  necessities  of  life.  The  constant 
and  pathetic  appeals  for  charity  support  the  fact :  if  food  was 
plentiful  it  was  not  free. 

[73] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

slaughter,  so  that  3,000,  4,000,  or  5,000  died  in  a 
week, — once  8,000.  The  calamity  was  inexpressible: 
carcasses  lay  unburied,  one  heard  dying  groans  and 
ravings  of  delirium,  relations  and  friends  bewailing 
their  losses,  and,  at  the  same  time,  anticipating  their 
own  sudden  end;  death  was  the  sure  midwife  to  all 
children;  the  newly-wed  died  in  their  first  embrace; 
some  ran  about  staggering  like  drunk  and  fell  dead  in 
the  street ;  others  lay  comatose,  half -dead,  still  others 
fell  dead  in  the  market  while  purchasing  the  necessi- 
ties of  life;  and  who  "would  not  burst  with  grief  to 
see  the  stock  of  a  future  generation  hang  upon  the 
breasts  of  a  dead  mother?"20 

The  Plague  spared  no  order,  age,  or  sex.  The 
divine  perished  in  the  exercise  of  his  priestly  duties, 
the  physician  died  administering  his  own  antidotes. 
Of  the  female  sex  most  died,21  and  few  children 
escaped.  Inheritances  passed  to  three  or  four  heirs  in 
as  many  days ;  there  were  not  enough  sextons  to  bury 
the  dead ;  the  bells  were  hoarse  with  continual  tolling ; 
the  burial  places  were  inadequate,  and  so  large  pits 
were  dug  in  waste  grounds  and  thirty  or  forty  bodies 
were  thrown  in  at  one  time.  Those  who  attended 
funerals  of  friends  one  evening  were  often  buried  the 
next. 

The  Court  being  at  Oxford,  the  City  authorities 
ordered  fires  built  in  the  streets  for  three  days  to- 
gether.    The  advice  of  the  physicians  was  against  this, 

20  Defoe  worked  over  this  statement  into  the  story  (about  the 
middle  of  the  "Journal")  beginning,  "I  could  tell  here  dismal 
stories  of  living  infants  being  found  sucking  the  breasts  of 
their    [dead]    mothers,"    etc. 

2  x  Nearly  all  the  authorities  make  this  statement,  but  the  Bills  of 
Mortality  show  only  a  slight  excess  of  women  over  men.. 

[74] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

and  the  sequel  proved  them  right,  for  more  than  4,000 
died  in  one  night  following  the  fires.22  The  practices 
of  chemists  and  quacks  also  aggravated  the  ravages  of 
the  disease.  "They  thrust  into  every  hand  some 
trash  or  other  under  the  disguise  of  a  pompous  title. ' ' 
Hardly  any  escaped  who  trusted  their  remedies,  but 
as  a  partial  vengeance  for  their  wicked  impostures, 
"they  were  caught  in  the  common  ruin."23  Experi- 
ments with  foreign  medicines  also  proved  disasterous. 

The  contagion  spread  to  the  country,  especially 
to  the  towns  along  the  Thames,  owing  to  infected 
goods  being  carried  up  it. 

The  height  passed,  "the  Plague  by  leisurely  de- 
grees declined, ' '  and,  besides,  it  was  now  less  fatal,  for 
a  greater  proportion  of  the  infected  recovered  than  in 
midsummer.  People  grew  less  fearful,  one  of  another, 
and  after  a  time  "a  dawn  of  health  appeared  as  sud- 
den and  as  unexpected  as  the  cessation  of  the  follow- 
ing conflagration/'24     This  was  due  to  the  less  malig- 

22  Defoe    doubts    the    accuracy    of    this,    and    it    is    not    corroborated 

by  any  other  source.  That  at  least  10,000  a  week  died  at  one 
stage  in  the  Plague  is  not  questioned  by  the  author  of  the 
"Journal." 

23  Defoe    paraphrases    Hodges    thus:      "Some    fancied    they    were    all 

swept  away  in  the  infection  to  a  man,  and  were  for  calling  it 
a  particular  work  of  God's  vengeance."  It  will  be  remembered 
also  that  Defoe  points  out  that  a  number  of  eminent  physicians 
were  carried  away  by  the  Plague.  Hodges  (p.  15)  says  eight 
or  nine  physician  died  (some  of  these  I  have  already  men- 
tioned) .  Defoe  had  a  list  of  five  physicians  and  eighteen  sur- 
geons. Pepys  (October  16,  1665)  heard  that  in  Westminster 
they  were  all  dead  save  one  apothecary.  John  Allin  on  Septem- 
ber 14,  1665,  wrote  that  seven  score  doctors,  apothecaries  and 
surgeons  "are  all  dead  of  this  distemper  in  and  about  ye  city." 
( "Archeelogia, "  xxxvii,  p.  10).  While  Dr.  George  Thompson  was 
suffering  from  plague  (after  dissecting  a  corpse),  his  two  col- 
leagues, Drs.  Dey  and  Starkey,  died.  Of  this  Thompson  wrote, 
"At  that  very  time  [August,  1665]  .  .  .  two  of  my  most  esteemed 
consorts,  Dr.  Joseph  Dey  and  Dr.  George  Starkey,  two  pillars 
of  chimical  physick,  were  both  reposed  in  their  graves  before  I 
knew  of  their  deaths."  ( "Loimotomia, "  96).  Starkey  ascribed 
his    death   to   the   taking   an   over-draught   of   beer. 

24  It  is  this  statement,  which  Defoe  merely  takes  over  from  Hodges, 

that  has  been  apologized  for  as   "for  purposes  of  art." 

[75] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES    OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

nant  nature  of  the  distemper.  And,  just  as  at  the  be- 
ginning, all  other  diseases  seemed  to  go  into  the 
Plague,  so  now,  the  Plague  degenerated  into  other  con- 
tagious diseases.  In  December,  people  crowded  back 
to  town  as  eagerly  as  they  formerly  ran  away,  and 
that  too  without  fear,  lying  in  beds  but  recently  oc- 
cupied by  the  infected.  Shops  were  again  opened, 
and  business  took  on  a  normal  tone.  Cheerfulness 
and  courage  became  more  manifest,  and,  before  long, 
the  ravages  of  the  Plague  were  scarcely  discernible. 
Some  compute  that  over  100,000  died  of  the  distemper. 
It  broke  out  again  in  the  Spring  of  1666,  but  was  read- 
ily conquered. 

Aside  from  the  few  disagreements  (indicated  in 
the  footnotes)  the  foregoing  summary  of  Hodges 's 
' '  Historical  Account  of  the  Plague ' '  might  readily  be 
mistaken  for  a  condensed  outline  of  Defoe's  history; 
and,  truly,  such  it  is  so  far  as  it  goes.  If  we  but  add 
to  this  the  statistical  and  other  documentary  data,  and 
the  illustrative  stories  and  descriptions  of  the  town 
and  people  during  the  Plague,  we  should  then  have 
the  Journal  complete.  It  is  here,  of  course,  that  the 
stickler  for  the  fictional  element  in  the  Journal  comes 
in  with  his  theory ;  and  it  must  be  confessed  that  the 
most  effective  feature  of  Defoe's  history  is  the  use  he 
makes  of  the  illustrative  stories  and  dismal  scenes  to 
arouse  in  the  reader  a  feeling  of  the  apalling  calamity, 
and  an  overwhelming  pity  for  the  sufferers.  But  here 
again  there  was  absolutely  nothing  original  with  De- 
foe. Not  for  one  moment  can  his  work  be  compared, 
in  richness  of  materials,  sincerity,  and  eloquent 
pathos,  with  one  of  his  chief  sources,  namely,  Thomas 

[76] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE    YEAR 

Vincent's  God's  Terrible  Voice  in  the  City,  which  I 
have  had  occasion  to  mention  more  than  once.  Vin- 
cent was  one  of  those  Non-conforming  preachers  who 
had  been  ousted  from  their  livings  by  the  Act  of 
Angnst  24,  1662,  and,  by  the  Act  of  March  24,  1665, 
banished  five  miles  from  all  Corporations.  He  was 
one  of  several  such  ministers  mentioned  by  Defoe  who 
remained  in  London  during  the  Plague  and  filled  the 
empty  pulpits  made  vacant  by  Conformists  running 
away  from  their  flocks.25  Naturally,  Vincent  saw  the 
Plague  in  the  light  of  a  just  vengeance  sent  from  God 
on  his  political  and  religious  enemies, — especially  on 
those  ministers  who  had  run  away,  and  Defoe  may 
well  have  had  him  in  mind,  among  others,  whose  ' '  ser- 
mons rather  sank  than  lifted  up  the  hearts  of  their 
hearers."26  So,  too,  Vincent's  outcries  against  blas- 
phemy may  have  suggested  to  Defoe  the  sermon  on  the 
same  text.    However,  all  this  was  common  to  the  ser- 

2  5  Among  those  Presbyterians  who  took  up  their  ministerial  duties 
again  during  the  Plague  were,  Vincent,  Allin,  Chester,  Franklin, 
Grimes,  Turner,  and  Janaway  (who  died  of  plague).  That  there 
was  a  very  strong  feeling  against  the  regular  clergy  for  running 
away  is  evident  on  every  hand.  The  Sancroft  Correspondence 
illustrates  this.  On  February  4,  1666,  Pepys  wrote  in  his 
"Diary,"  "The  Lord's  day;  and  my  wife  and  I  the  first  time 
together  to  church  since  the  plague,  and  now  only  because  of 
Mr.  Mills  his  coming  home  to  preach  his  first  sermon;  expecting 
a  great  excuse  for  his  leaving  the  parish  before  anybody  went, 
and  now  staying  till  all  are  come  home,  but  he  made  a  very 
poor  and  short  excuse,  and  a  bad  sermon."  It  would  be  a  great 
mistake  and  gross  injustice,  however,  to  suppose  that  all  the 
regular  clergy  left  their  charges.  'Tis  true,  most  did,  including 
Bishop  Henchman  and  Dean  Sancroft;  but  some  of  the  rectors, 
vicars,  and  canons  stuck  to  their  posts,  such  as  Patrick,  Clifford, 
Bing,  Masters,  Simpson,  Morris,  Portington,  Griffith  (who  died 
of  plague),    Overing,   Horton,    Merriton,    and   others. 

26  Defoe  had  a  splendid  choice  from  which  to  reach  this  conclu- 
sion. Take  for  example,  this  reviving  excerpt  from  Vincent's 
funeral  sermon  on  Abraham  Janaway,  Sept.  18,  1665:  "Look! 
do  you  not  see  the  mouth  of  the  pit  open,  and  before  it  be  shut 
again,  you  may  be  put  in ;  you  see  the  righteous  perish,  but 
you  are  in  danger  of  a  far  worse  perishing;  .  .  .  their  souls 
are  taken  away  by  angels,  and  conveyed  to  heaven,  but  when 
your   bodies    drop   into  the   grave,    your   soul   will  be   dragged  by 

[77] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

mons  of  the  time,  as  well  as  to  Defoe 's  own  time,  and 
special  sources  for  pious  exhortations  need  not  be 
sought.  Solomon  Eagle,  as  already  pointed  out,  had 
his  prototype  in  John  Gibson,  the  17th  Century 
Quaker  fanatic ;  but  Vincent  might  just  as  well  have 
furnished  Defoe  with  the  substance  of  Solomon's  exe- 
crations. Likewise,  the  penitent  sinners,  so  frequently 
mentioned  in  the  Journal,  came  directly  from  God's 
Terrible  Voice.  Indeed,  an  analysis  of  this  book,  as 
in  the  case  of  Loimologia,  reveals  the  fact  that  Defoe 
made  use  of  it  for  all  it  would  produce:  in  no  fewer 
than  sixty  instances  in  the  Journal  may  we  trace 
the  origins  to  Vincent,  and,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
materials  borrowed  from  Hodges,  there  are  many 
repetitions.  As  much  of  the  materials  of  the  Journal 
are  common  to  God's  Terrible  Voice  and  Loimologia, 
mention  here  need  only  be  made  of  the  particulars 
with  which  Vincent,  and  only  Vincent,  supplied 
Defoe.  The  arousal  of  sinners  to  repentance  has 
just  been  referred  to.  It  is  more  particularly  the 
aspect  of  the  people  and  the  desolation  caused  by  the 
pest,  so  graphically  portrayed  by  Vincent,  that  fur- 
nished Defoe  with  one  of  his  chief  assets.  In  God's 
Terrible  Voice  he  found  all  that  was  necessary  to  ex- 
press the  apprehensions  and  fears,  the  altered,  scared 
looks  of  the  poor  people,  especially  after  the  rich  had 
deserted  the  town  and  the  order  for  shutting  up  and 
marking  the  infected  houses  had  been  issued;  shops 
shut  up,   grass  growing  in  the  streets,   few  people 

devils  into  hell,"  etc.  Oddly  enough,  however,  this  seems  to 
have  been  the  sort  of  thing  the  poor  frightened  creatures  of  that 
time  hungered  for  and  crowded  to  the  churches  to  hear,  re- 
gardless  of  the  danger  of  the  infection. 

[78] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

abroad;  "not  one  house  in  an  hundred  but  is  in- 
fected, ' ' — a  fearful  slaughter,  whole  families  dead,  the 
church-yards  stuffed  full ;  cries  and  groans  of  the  sick 
and  dying,  the  afflicted  in  their  frenzy  rising  out  of 
bed  roar  at  the  window  or  run  forth  naked  into  the 
streets, — one  man  burnt  himself  to  death  in  bed.  De- 
foe made  use  of  all  this  over  and  over  again,  never 
failing  to  impress  the  awfulness  of  the  times  by  means 
of  pious  ejaculations,  borrowed  along  with  the  ma- 
terials from  the  sources.  One  of  the  many  details  in 
the  Journal  taken  straight  over  from  Vincent  is  the 
story  of  the  wag  who  advertised  a  ' '  pulpit  to  be  let, ' ' 
after  the  minister  had  run  away.  Also,  Defoe  like 
Vincent,  moralizes  on  that  perennial  quality  in  human 
nature,  that  during  the  calamity  all  differences  of 
opinion  were  silenced — in  the  presence  of  the  common 
enemy — but  after  the  gravest  dangers  were  passed, 
the  old  religious  quarrels  broke  out  again  and  people 
resumed  the  habit  of  their  old  sins.  As  in  the  case  of 
Hodges,  Defoe  let  nothing  he  could  use  from  Vincent 
escape  his  net. 

The  remention  of  Defoe's  religious  piety  makes  it 
necessary  to  dispel  another  myth  respecting  the 
Journal,  or  rather  respecting  Defoe.  It  will  be  re- 
called at  once  that  Defoe,  that  is,  Defoe's  sadler  who 
relates  the  story,  was  much  disturbed  as  to  whether  he 
should  remain  in  town,  look  after  his  business,  and 
trust  in  God,  or,  like  others  who  were  able,  flee  to  the 
country.27     Like  many  another  distracted  person  of 

27  It  will  be  recalled  that  the  Sadler's  brother  argued  with  him  as  to 
the  folly  of  remaining  and  pointed  as  example  to  the  predes- 
tinarian  view  held  by  the  Turks  to  their  undoing.  The  reference 
to  the  Turk  in  this  connection  was  very  common.  Cf.  Kemp, 
"Brief   Treatise,"    p.    15,    a   copy   of  which   Defoe   owned. 

[79] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES    OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

that  day,  he  wavered  now  this  way,  now  that,  not 
knowing  what  to  do.  Finally,  one  evening  after  much 
worry  about  the  question,  he,  as  if  by  accident,  or 
divine  guidance,  opened  the  Bible  at  the  91st  Psalm. 
This  settled  all  his  doubts, — he  would  remain!  One 
editor  of  the  Journal,  in  an  excess  of  devotion  to  De- 
foe 's  fertile  genius,  gives  vent  to  his  feelings  in, 
"Nothing  could  be  more  natural  than  the  account  of 
the  sadler's  uncertainty  whether  he  should  leave  Lon- 
don, .  .  .  and  when  he  opened  his  Bible  he  lighted  on 
the  words,"  etc.  "From  that  moment  he  resolved  to 
stay,  knowing  that  whatever  happened  he  was  in  God 's 
hands. ' '  Well,  now,  it  was  rather  necessary  that  De- 
foe should  devise  some  means  to  keep  his  sadler  in 
town — otherwise  the  narrative  would  have  ended 
somewhat  abruptly.  Of  course,  any  schoolboy  could 
have  had  him  remain  without  inventing  any  argu- 
ments about  the  business;  but  such  a  simple  process 
would  have  branded  the  author  as  a  novice,  to  say  the 
least.  Now,  the  ' '  lighting  on  the  words ' '  gives  distinc- 
tion and  an  air  of  naturalness  to  the  narrative.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  nearly  all  the  writers  on  the  subject 
from  the  time  of  David  onwards  have  gone  over  the 
arguments  about  fleeing  the  plague.  One  has  but  to 
open  any  book  on  the  pest  to  learn  this, — Beze,  Gad- 
bury,  Kemp,  Patrick,  Austin,  author  of  Golgotha,  etc., 
etc.  As  for  the  Psalms,  they  have  always  been  re- 
sorted to  for  consolation  in  times  of  trouble  in  general, 
and  in  cases  of  the  plague  in  particular.  One  author 
makes  twenty-six  biblical  references  in  one  connection, 
the  list  being  headed  by  the  91st  Psalm  which  re- 
appears three  times  (Golgotha,  p.  14).     C.  Conraden 

[80] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

wrote  a  poem  devoted  entirely  to  that  Psalm  (1633), 
and  Theodore  Beze,  in  a  Shorte  learned  and  pithie 
Treatise  (1580)  treats  of  it  in  extenso  in  respect  of 
fleeing  from  the  pestilence.  To  come  nearer  home,  we 
may  dismiss  the  whole  matter  at  once  by  referring  to 
Symon  Patrick's  Consolatory  Discourse  (1665,  p.  30) 
wherein  he  not  only  cites  the  91st  Psalm,  but  quotes 
that  portion,  and  only  that  portion,  repeated  by  Defoe. 
It  would  have  been  nothing  wonderful  if  Defoe,  with 
his  knowledge  of  the  Bible,  had  turned  to  the  passage 
in  question,  but  to  credit  him  with  lighting  upon  it  is 
sheer  nonsense.  As  we  have  caught  him  so  many 
times  red-handed  in  the  act  of  appropriating  materials 
for  the  Journal,  it  is  safe  to  suggest  that  he  took  the 
quotation  directly  from  Patrick,  with  whose  writings 
he  was  well  acquainted.  This  example  is  fairly  illus- 
trative of  the  Journal  as  a  whole,  so  far  as  it  relates  to 
Defoe's  originality  in  creating  the  narrative  of  the 
Plague. 


[81] 


Ill 

That  some  slips  and  errors  should  have  crept  into 
a  history  of  the  nature  of  the  Journal  was  inevitable. 
But  these  are  comparatively  few,  generally  of  slight 
importance,  and  due,  in  nearly  every  instance,  to  haste 
or  to  misleading  sources.  I  have  already  taken  ac- 
count of  some  of  these,  and  they  need  only  be  men- 
tioned here  in  way  of  summary.  That  there  were 
printed  newspapers  in  those  days,  Defoe  must  have 
been  aware.  Likewise,  it  would  seem  that  he  should 
have  known  that  microscopes  had  been  in  use  for  a 
generation  before  the  Plague  Year.  On  the  other 
hand,  I  have  found  no  indication  that  they  were 
brought  into  use  in  connection  with  the  treatment  of 
the  distemper  of  1665.  It  was,  however,  sheer  care- 
lessness or  haste  that  accounts  for  wrong  dates  and 
inaccurate  statistics.  For  example,  almost  on  the  first 
page  of  the  Journal  Defoe  mentions  two  Frenchmen 
who  died  of  the  Plague  in  Long  Acre,  or  thereabouts, 
in  December,  1664,  and  shortly  afterwards  says  there 
was  only  one,  a  statement  which  he  repeats.  On  the 
second  page  it  appears  that  none  died  of  the  disease 
from  December,  1664  until ' '  about  the  12th  of  Febru- 
ary" following;  near  the  end  of  the  Journal  the  9th 
of  February  is  given.  The  same  kind  of  carelessness 
if  found  respecting  the  number  of  pesthouses:  in 
three  places  Defoe  says  there  was  only  one,  in  another 
place  he  says  two.  The  latter  statement  is  correct. 
The  number  that  died  of  the  Plague  at  the  Westmin- 

[82] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

ster  pesthouse  is  given  as  159,  which  should  read  156  j 
but  this  is  evidently  the  proofreader's  error.28     One 
table  in  the  Journal  is  misleading,  namely,  the  one 
showing  the  number  of  deaths  from  August  22  to  Sep- 
tember 26,  1665,  which  was  38,195.     The  impression 
left  is  that  this  represents  the  deaths  from  the  Plague, 
whereas  it  represents  the  total  number  of  deaths.     De- 
foe   should    have    added,    "whereof    31,331    of    the 
Plague."     In  one  instance,  his  figures  are  entirely 
at  variance  with  the  Bills :  in  demonstrating  the  fact 
that  many  who  died  of  the  distemper  were  set  down 
to  other  diseases,  he  records  for  1664,  "child-bed,  189 ; 
abortive    and    still-born,    458."      This    should    read, 
"child-bed,  250;  abortive  and  still-born,  503."  For  the 
week  ending  July  4,  1665,  Defoe  says  that  "not  one 
person  died  of  plague  in  all  Stepney  parish."     The 
Bills  returned  two  that  week  for  Stepney.     The  fol- 
lowing week  he  estimated  the  number  from  plague  at 
900;  the  Clerks  reported  725.     This  is  Defoe's  only 
venture  at  an  estimate  of  the  number  of  deaths  from 
the  pestilence  in  a  given  week;  his  other  figures  are 
taken  directly  from  the  Bills. 

It  has  already  been  shown  that  the  error  in  the 
Journal  respecting  the  dates  of  the  planet  conjunc- 
tions was  due  to  the  fact  that  Defoe's  authority 
(Hodges)  did  not  indicate  the  years  in  which  they 
occurred,  and  Defoe  assumed  that  they  both  immedi- 
ately preceded  the  outbreak  of  the  Plague.  As  to  the 
movements  of  the  Court,  he  was  entirely  at  sea, — an- 
other slip  due  to  Hodges 's  indefiniteness.     Defoe  says 

28  In    checking    up    errors    in    the    "Journal"    I    have    used    the    1st 
edition. 

[83] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

that  the  Court  removed  to  Oxford  in  June,  and  re- 
turned to  town  soon  after  Christmas.  The  newsbooks 
of  the  day  furnish  us  with  the  exact  movements  of  the 
Court.  On  July  2,  1665,  Charles  II  and  his  suite 
went  to  Hampton  Court  (the  Queen  Mother  went  to 
France  a  few  days  earlier).  They  remained  at 
Hampton  Court  until  July  28.  As  a  greater  means 
of  precaution,  on  that  date  the  King  moved  towards 
Salisbury,  first  visiting  Portsmouth  and  Isle-of-Wight, 
arriving  at  Salisbury  on  August  1.  On  September  15, 
Charles  began  a  Royal  Progress,  in  which  was  in- 
cluded, in  order,  Poole,  Lulworth,  Weymouth,  Port- 
land, and  Dorchester.  The  King  returned  to  Salis- 
bury on  September  21.  The  pest  appearing  there 
about  this  time,  the  Court  hastily  removed  to  Oxford 
on  the  25th  of  the  month.  There  Parliament  was  con- 
vened on  October  9,  and  there  the  Court  remained  un- 
til January  27,  1666,  when  it  came  back  to  Hampton 
Court.  Five  days  later  (February  1)  Charles  and  his 
followers  returned  to  Whitehall,  having  been  away 
exactly  seven  months. 

As  I  have  already  mentioned,  the  order  to  the 
College  of  Physicians  was  a  royal  command,  and  did 
not  come  from  the  Mayor  as  stated  by  Defoe.  As  to 
the  good  work  of  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  Defoe 
seems  to  have  been  obsessed  with  the  idea  that  they 
must  have  scrupulously  enforced  all  orders  emanat- 
ing from  them,  such  as  keeping  the  street  clean,  bury- 
ing the  dead,  etc.  As  a  matter  of  fact  they  accom- 
plished almost  superhuman  results,  under  the  circum- 
stances and  conditions  of  the  times,  but  nothing  so 
complete  as  Defoe  asserts.     In  this  connection  he  men- 

[84] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

tions  charities  (inasmuch  as  the  Lord  Mayor  was 
largely  responsible  for  their  distribution)  and  states 
that  £17,800  were  distributed  to  Cripplegate  in  one 
week.  This  is  the  only  instance  of  gross  exaggeration 
I  have  found  in  the  Journal.  While  the  whole  truth 
can  never  be  known  as  to  the  amounts  distributed  to 
the  poor  during  the  Plague,  as  a  great  deal  of  money 
was  sent  to  private  individuals,  rectors,  curates,  etc., 
of  which  no  public  account  was  kept,  it  is  extremely 
doubtful  whether  all  of  the  parishes  of  London  taken 
together  ever  received  as  much  as  £17,800  in  one  week 
in  charities.  Defoe  also  asserts  that  the  King  ordered 
£1,000  distributed  weekly,  but  I  know  not  his  author- 
ity. The  City  of  London,  however,  did  vote  £600, 
and  many  of  the  parishes  increased  the  rates  heavily 
to  meet  the  emergency.  Even  so,  the  contributions 
from  all  quarters  fell  far  short  of  meeting  the  neces- 
sitous conditions,  and  after  the  distemper  spread  to 
the  one  hundred  and  thirty  parishes  of  the  City  and 
suburbs  it  was  precious  little  that  any  one  parish  re- 
ceived at  one  time. 

A  few  more  scattering  details  will  suffice  to  cover 
the  remaining  slips  in  the  Journal.  Defoe  was  not 
aware  that  the  plague  got  into  the  fleet,  simply  be- 
cause every  effort  was  made  to  conceal  the  fact ;  hence 
his  error  in  stating  the  contrary.29  So,  also,  as  to  the 
army,  he  says,  "as  to  soldiers,  there  were  none  to  be 
found, ' '  etc.  In  a  manner  this  was  true,  when  we  con- 
sider that  the  London  of  1665  was  not  the  London  of 
1914-1919.     They  were  quartered  in  Hyde  Park  in 

29  For    proof    that    the    distemper    got    aboard    the    ships,    see    "Cal. 
State  Papers"   Dom.,  December  25,    1665  and  February  2,   1666. 

[85] 


HISTORICAL    SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

tents,  and  returned  to  town  on  November  6,  1665.30 
Again,  Defoe  erroneously  states  that  the  Exchange 
was  kept  open  during  the  Plague.  It  was  closed  for 
repairs  during  August  and  September,  1665. 31  As 
for  the  impression  we  get  from  the  Journal  that  all  the 
astrologers  were  carried  away  by  plague,  a  number 
of  the  leading  ones,  as  Lilly  and  Gadbury,  lived  for  a 
number  of  years  after  1665  and  continued  their  pre- 
dictions to  the  last.  In  a  like  manner,  Defoe  misleads 
us  when  he  states  that ' '  some  of  the  ministers  did  visit 
the  sick  at  first  and  for  a  little  while,  but  it  was  not  to 
be  done;"  from  which  we  infer  that  after  the  infec- 
tion reached  its  height,  they  had  to  abandon  their 
work.  Patrick,  Allin,  Bing,  Vincent,  Tillison,  and 
many  others,  stuck  to  their  posts  throughout,  as  I  have 
already  shown.  A  similar  wrong  impression  is  left  as 
regards  the  fires  that  were  built  in  the  streets,  in  com- 
pliance with  the  Lord  Mayor's  order  of  September  2, 
1665.  Defoe  mentions  only  fifteen  places  where  fires 
were  built:  the  order  provided  for  one  fire  to  every 
twelve  houses  (i.  e.  six  houses  on  either  side  of  the 
street).32  All  discrepancies  respecting  the  weather, 
winds,  drought,  progress  of  the  distemper,  etc.,  arise 
out  of  corresponding  confusions  in  Defoe's  sources; 
statements  of  this  character  were  based  by  him  on  au- 
thority, and,  besides,  the  element  of  error  in  these  re- 
spects is  so  slight  as  to  be  virtually  negligible.33 

30  See   letter   from    Symon   Patrick   to   Elizabeth    Gauden,    dated    No- 
vember 7,   1665.      "Add.  MSS."    5810. 
81  "Newes,"    Nos.   60   and   76. 

32  Cf.  "Intelligencer"  No.  72. 

33  As   illustrations   of   similar   discrepancies,    see   Thompson,    "Loimo- 

tomia,"  1666,  p.  67;  Boghurst,  "Loimographia,"  1666,  p.  29; 
Withers,  "A  Precaution  relating  to  the  Present  Time,"  1665, 
p.  66. 

[86] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

Of  much  greater  importance  than  the  trivial  er- 
rors recorded   above,   is   the   question   of  style   and 
method  employed  by  Defoe  in  the  Journal;  for  these 
have  borne  a  considerable  part  in  getting  the  name  of 
fiction  attached  to  the  book.     In  the  first  place,  of 
course,  stands  the  very  apparent  fact  that  the  narra- 
tive is  in  the  first  person.    To  descant  upon  the  charm, 
the  sense  of  reality,  the  "atmosphere,"  which  this 
lends  to  the  book  would  not  only  be  trite,  but  alto- 
gether superfluous.     Little  artful  tricks  of  style  as,  "I 
saw  both  these  stars,"  "business  led  me  out  sometimes 
to   the  other  end  of  the  town,"  "I  will  not  be  positive 
whether  he  said  forty  days  or  a  few  days, ' '  "  I  met  this 
creature  several  times  in  the  streets,"  etc.,  etc.,  grip 
the  reader  immediately,  according  to  a  psychological 
process  appreciated  by  every  one.     Had  the  history  of 
the  Plague  been  written  in  the  usual  style  of  the 
dry-as-dust  historian,  the  number  of  readers  would 
have  been  comparatively  small.34     This  style  had  al- 
ready been  mastered  by  Defoe,  hence,  it  was  applied  to 
the  Journal  for  reasons  of  convenience  and  taste  as 
well  as  business.     All  that  concerns  us  here  is  that  the 
employment  of  the  first  person  in  the  narrative  in  no 
sense  interferes  with  the  authenticity  of  the  facts  re- 
corded.    I  have  already  made  mention  of  the  story  of 
the  carpenter,  sailor,  and  soldier,  and  have  shown  that, 
inasmuch  as  the  integral  parts  of  that  story  are  true, 
the  exception  is  only  apparent,  not  real.     The  same  is 
true  of  the  stories  growing  out  of  documents,  such  as 

34  The  continuator  of  Dr.  Gideon  Harvey's  account  of  the  Plague 
(as  "City  Remembrancer,"  1769)  compiled  the  work  from 
sources  and  authorities  (including  the  "Journal"),  and,  hence, 
is  equally  reliable   as  Defoe, — yet  who  reads   Harvey's   account? 

[87] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

the  Orders,  Proclamations,  etc., — either  the  stories 
are  authentic  (I  have  quoted  parallels)  or  else  the 
documents  are  without  meaning.  Any  one  writing  a 
history  of  the  Plague  of  1665  in  the  third  person  di- 
rectly from  the  original  sources  would  produce  a  re- 
sult equivalent  to,  and  in  all  essentials  identical  with, 
Defoe's  Journal.  That  a  history  be  written  in  the 
first  person  is  not  sufficient  grounds  for  classing  it 
with  fiction:  so  far  as  authenticity  is  concerned,  the 
style  is  of  no  importance  whatever.  Moreover,  I  have 
more  than  once  pointed  out  that  many  of  the  best  ef- 
fects in  the  Journal  are  not  due  to  the  first  person,  nor 
are  they  of  Defoe 's  making,  but  are  paraphrases  or  di- 
rect copies  of  the  original  sources. 

The  most  curious  thing  about  the  use  of  the  first 
person  in  narrating  the  events  of  the  Plague  Year  is 
not  that  such  a  style  makes  the  book  more  interesting 
to  read,  but  that  it  served  to  cover  up  the  most  egre- 
gious faults  known  to  literature, — digressions,  inco- 
herencies,  involved  and  cumbrous  expressions,  tire- 
some repetitions, — all  of  which  made  it  possible  for  the 
author  to  compile  a  mass  large  enough  to  be  called  a 
book.  A  striking  example  of  this  is  the  "  as-I-said-be- 
fore"  habit,  responsible  for  scores  of  needless  repeti- 
tions in  the  Journal,  as  many  as  three  or  four- — some- 
times more — of  these  appearing  in  the  same  para- 
graph, and  all  referring  to  the  same  thing.  Innumer- 
able samples  of  this  mannerism  may  be  sighted  by 
casually  turning  over  the  leaves  of  the  Journal.  The 
repetitions  of  discussions  and  comments  regarding  the 
progress  of  the  Plague,  treatment  of  the  patients 
(shutting  up,  watchmen,  nurses,  etc.),  work  of  the 

[88] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

officers,  etc.,  are  less  obvious,  because  they  are  scat- 
tered about  in  paraphrase  and  altered  expressions. 
So  hard  put  to  it  was  Defoe  to  make  a  marketable  book 
that  he  is  forced  to  repeat  his  stories.  Thus  Solomon 
Eagle  is  made  to  do  service  three  times,  as  follows: 
(a)  "I  suppose  the  world  has  heard  of  the  famous 
Solomon  Eagle,  an  enthusiast.  He,  though  not  in- 
fected at  all  but  in  his  head,  went  about  denouncing 
of  judgment  upon  the  city  in  a  frightful  manner, 
sometimes  quite  naked,  and  with  a  pan  of  burning 
charcoal  on  his  head."  (b)  "The  famous  Solomon 
Eagle  .  .  .  had  predicted  the  plague  as  a  judgment, 
and  ran  naked  through  the  streets,  telling  the  people 
it  was  come  upon  them  to  punish  them  for  their  sins. ' ' 
(c)  "The  famous  Solomon  Eagle,  the  naked  Quaker  I 
have  mentioned,  prophesied  evil  tidings  every  day," 
etc.  The  repetitions  of  expressions  calculated  to  make 
the  conditions  of  the  times  more  realistic  are  too 
numerous  to  mention.  "Dismal  scenes,"  with  its 
many  variations,  has  been  mentioned.  The  folly  of 
people  rushing  back  to  town  as  precipitously  as  they 
ran  away  is  condemned  a  half-dozen  times  in  almost 
precisely  the  same  language.  He  speaks  of  this  fool- 
hardiness  as  "precipitous  courage,"  "unwary  con- 
duct," "imprudent,  rash  conduct,"  "rash  and  fool- 
ish conduct, "  "  audacious  boldness, ' '  etc.,  in  each  case 
repeating  the  consequences. 

How  the  pest  originated  in  Long  Acre  and  spread 
from  thence  is  retold  four  times  in  the  Journal.  Even 
after  he  has  almost  concluded — or  rather  after  the 
book  should  long  have  been  concluded — Defoe  starts 
over  again  "how  it  began  at  one  end  of  the  town." 

[89] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

The  discussion  of  shutting  up,  with  the  good  and  bad 
effects  attending  the  practice,  occurs  no  less  than  ten 
distinct  times,  some  of  these  involving  as  many  as  fif- 
teen or  eighteen  pages,  not  to  mention  the  innumer- 
able repetitions  within  these  repetitions.  An  account 
of  the  distractions  of  victims  roaring  at  the  window, 
running  about  naked,  etc.,  appears  sixteen  times ;  the 
alleged  misrepresentations  of  the  Bills  of  Mortality 
thirteen  times;  the  good  work  of  the  Magistrates 
twenty-one  times.  The  same  kind  of  analysis  could  be 
applied,  with  varying  results,  to  the  other  features  of 
the  Journal.  These  tiresome  repetitions  comprise 
two-thirds  or  more  of  the  volume,  and,  after  taking 
into  account  every  addition  of  fact  or  feeling  to  be 
found  in  them,  they  might  be  reduced  to  one-fourth 
or  one-fifth  of  the  space  they  now  occupy  without  ren- 
dering the  value  of  the  history  less  by  one  iota.  The 
only  purpose  they  serve — in  addition  to  swelling  the 
book's  size — is  to  impress  on  the  imagination  the  hor- 
rors of  the  Plague.  Even  so,  the  emphasis  is  so  much 
overdone  that  it  loses  its  force.  Viewed  from  the 
point  of  style  and  art,  the  work  is  execrable.  To  make 
it  perfectly  clear  that  I  have  not  exaggerated  in  this 
matter  of  repetitions  in  the  Journal,  I  will  here  repro- 
duce a  number  of  them  in  relation  to  the  unconscious 
spreading  of  the  disease  by  people  going  about  with 
the  infection  upon  them  but  they  not  aware  of  it. 
Other  examples,  as  above,  would  show  similar  results. 

(a)  "[Often,  people  escaping  from  shut-up 
houses],  having  an  uninterrupted  liberty  to  go  about, 
but  being  obliged  still  to  conceal  their  circumstances, 
or  perhaps  not  knowing  it  themselves,  gave  the  dis- 

[90] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

temper  to  others,  and  spread  the  infection  in  a  dread- 
ful manner,  as  I  shall  explain  further  hereafter."  p. 
84.35 

(b)  "Now  it  was  impossible  to  know  these  people, 
nor  did  they  sometimes,  as  I  have  said,  know  them- 
selves to  be  infected."  p.  220. 

(c)  "  [People  apparently  well  often  had  the  con- 
tagion] really  upon  them,  and  in  their  blood,  yet  did 
not  show  the  consequences  of  it  in  their  countenances ; 
nay  even  were  not  sensible  of  it  themselves."  lb. 

(d)  "And  this  is  the  reason  why  it  is  impossible 
in  a  visitation  to  prevent  the  spreading  of  the  plague 
by  the  utmost  human  vigilance,  viz.,  that  it  is  impos* 
sible  to  know  the  infected  people  from  the  sound,  or 
that  the  infected  people  should  perfectly  know  them- 
selves." lb. 

(e)  "The  plague  is  not  to  be  avoided  by  those  that 
converse  promiscuously  in  a  town  infected,  and  people 
have  it  when  they  know  it  not,  and  they  likewise  give  it 
to  others  when  they  know  not  they  have  it  them- 
selves." p.  221. 

(f)  "Shutting  up  the  well  or  removing  the  sick 
will  not  [prevent  the  spread  of  the  distemper]  unless 
they  can  go  back  and  shut  up  all  those  that  the  sick 
had  conversed  with,  even  before  they  knew  themselves 
to  be  sick  .  .  .  for  none  knows  when,  or  where,  or  how 
they  have  received  the  infection,  or  from  whom."  lb. 

(g)  "One  man  who  may  really  have  received  the 
infection  and  knows  it  not,  but  goes  abroad  and  about 
as  a  sound  person,  may  give  the  plague  to  a  thousand 

35  The  paging  refers  to    "Everyman's  Library,"   which,   by  the  way, 
classes   the    "Journal"    as    "fiction." 

[91] 


HISTORICAL    SOURCES    OF   DEFOE'S    JOURNAL 

people,  .  .  .  and  neither  the  person  giving  the  infection 
or  the  person  receiving  it  know  anything  of  it,  and 
perhaps  feel  the  effects  of  it  for  several  days  after 
[when  the  tokens  wonld  appear]  .  .  .  and  yet,  as  I 
said,  they  knew  nothing  of  their  being  infected,  nor 
found  themselves  as  much  as  out  of  order,  till  those 
mortal  marks  were  upon  them."  p.  225. 

(h)  "Men  went  about  apparently  well  many  days 
after  they  had  the  taint  of  the  disease  in  their  vitals, 
and  after  their  spirits  were  so  seized  as  that  they  never 
could  escape  it,  and  that  all  the  while  they  did  so  they 
were  dangerous  to  others."  p.  229. 

(i)  "Fathers  and  mothers  have  gone  about  as  if 
they  had  been  well,  and  have  believed  themselves  to 
be  so,  till  they  have  insensibly  infected  and  been  the 
destruction  of  their  whole  families."  p.  232. 

(j)  "Many  people  having  been  well  to  the  best  of 
their  own  judgment,  .  .  .  for  several  days,  .  .  .  have 
been  found  ...  at  the  brink  of  death,  . .  .  and  a  walking 
destroyer  perhaps  for  a  week  or  a  fortnight  before 
that."  lb. 

(k)  "The  schemes  [for  shutting  up  infected 
houses]  cannot  take  place  but  upon  those  that  appear 
to  be  sick,  or  to  be  infected ;  whereas  there  are  among 
them  at  the  same  time  thousands  of  people  who  seem 
to  be  well,  but  are  all  the  while  carrying  death  with 
them  into  all  companies  which  they  come  into. ' '  p.  233. 

(1)  "The  apothecaries  and  surgeons  knew  .  .  .  that 
many  people  had  the  plague  in  their  very  blood,  .  .  . 
and  were  in  themselves  walking  putrefied  carcasses,  . .  . 
and  yet  were  as  well  to  look  on  as  other  people,  and 
even  knew  it  not  themselves."  lb. 

[92] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

(m)  "The  infection  is  retained  in  bodies  appar- 
ently well,  and  conveyed  from  them  to  those  they 
converse  with,  while  it  is  known  to  neither  the  one  nor 
the  other."  p.  238. 

(n)  "When  people  began  to  be  convinced  that  the 
infection  was  received  in  this  surprising  manner  from 
persons  apparently  well,  they  began  to  be  exceedingly 
shy  of  every  one  that  came  near  them."  Id. 

(o)  "I  observed  that  after  people  were  possessed, 
as  I  have  said,  with  the  belief,  or  rather  assurance,  of 
the  infection  being  thus  carried  on  by  persons  appar- 
ently in  health,  the  churches  and  meeting-houses  were 
much  thinner  of  people  than  at  other  times  before  that 
they  used  to  be."  p.  239. 

(p)  "When  the  physicians  assured  us  that  the 
danger  was  as  well  from  the  sound  as  the  sick,  and 
that  those  people  who  thought  themselves  entirely  free 
were  oftentimes  the  most  fatal;  .  .  .  then,  I  say,  they 
began  to  be  jealous  of  everybody."  p.  240. 

The  foregoing  extracts  do  not  include  several 
stories  growing  out  of,  or  corollaries  to,  the  statements 
of  fact  respecting  the  unconscious  spreading  of  the 
distemper.  Indeed,  these  are  really  not  stories,  but 
merely  further  repetitions  of  the  known  facts.  It  is 
this  method  of  stating  a  fact  as  an  experience  of  the 
narrator  that  has  caused  deception  concerning  the 
real  nature  of  the  Journal,  and  has  served  to  cover 
up  many  of  the  repetitions.  Concerning  these  repeti- 
tions, it  is  doubtful  whether,  without  the  minutest 
analysis,  any  but  the  most  careful  student  of  Defoe 
would  ever  dream  of  the  wanton  number  he  indulges 
in.     A  very  close  examination  of  the  Journal  dis- 

[93] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

closes  how  skilfully  lie  has  covered  up  both  the  pad- 
ding and  the  method  of  its  accomplishment,  by  dis- 
tributing his  materials,  rearranging  and  recombining 
them  in  slightly  altered  garbs,  as  the  statement  of 
facts  in  the  semblance  of  stories.  A  still  closer  exam- 
ination of  Defoe's  methods  reveals  the  fact  that  when 
he  takes  his  starting  point  for  his  repetitions  from  a 
given  source,  he  repeats  practically  all  that  he  has 
taken  from  that  author.  As  his  various  sources  em- 
phasize different  characteristics  of  the  Plague,  it  is 
easy  for  the  ordinary  reader  to  believe  that  Defoe, 
though  repeating  to  an  extent,  is  constantly  present- 
ing new  facts,  new  conditions,  new  aspects,  new 
stories.  Thus,  the  series  of  repetitions  within  repeti- 
tions serve  to  a  large  degree  to  conceal  the  process 
itself.  It  is  doubtful  whether  Defoe  was  conscious 
of  this,  but,  at  any  rate,  it  is  his  most  striking  accom- 
plishment in  writing  the  Journal. 

Closely  allied  to,  and  abetting,  this  process  of  hid- 
ing endless  repetitions  in  the  Journal,  is  the  digres- 
sionary  method  (or  lack  of  method)  which  so  fre- 
quently appears.  Defoe  began  his  history  in  a 
straightforward  manner,  copying  directly  from  his 
printed  sources.  But  he  had  not  gone  far  until  he  saw 
that  he  must  run  dry  before  he  had  half  a  book.  He 
therefore  began  to  embroider  upon  his  facts  by  cir- 
cling round  and  round  them,  digressing  and  repeat- 
ing, one  time  picking  up  an  item  here  to  start  from, 
another  time  an  item  from  another  source,  etc.  After 
printing  the  ' '  Orders  conceived  by  the  Lord  Mayor, ' ' 
this  digressionary  and  circling  process  begins.  It  is 
relieved  by  an  occasional  injection  of  figures  from  the 

[94] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

Bills,  and  illustrative  stories,  extracts  from  the  news- 
papers regarding  trade,  etc.,  but,  in  the  main,  the 
genuine  additions  to  the  history  of  the  Plague,  after 
the  first  third  of  the  Journal  is  past,  are  really  very 
few  until  we  come  to  near  the  close  of  the  book,  and 
even  here  we  find  much  that  has  been  recorded  in 
earlier  pages.  No  better  example  of  the  befogging  ef- 
fect of  Defoe's  digressions  can  be  found  than  in  the 
manner  in  which  he  introduces  his  story  of  the  sailor, 
soldier,  and  joiner.  He  first  begins  the  story  rather 
early  in  the  Journal,  but  immediately  rambles  off  to 
the  great  pit,  wickedness  of  the  buriers,  cruelty  of 
nurses,  blasphemous  tipplers,  and  church-going. 
Then  he  gets  back  to  blasphemy  again,  thence  to  shut- 
ting up  of  houses,  violence  of  watchmen,  spreading  of 
the  Plague  by  the  diseased  victims  breaking  out,  ob- 
servations on  the  cause  of  spreading  the  distemper, 
dismal  street  scenes,  and  private  meditations !  It  now 
occurs  to  him  to  introduce  Dr.  Heath,  but  he  is  imme- 
diately forced  back  to  the  cause  of  the  spread  of  the 
Plague — as  if  he  had  not  already  discussed  it  several 
times — then  more  dismal  street  scenes,  how  the  inhabi- 
tants managed  to  get  their  provisions,  more  melan- 
choly stories,  cruel  nurses  and  robbery  stories  re- 
peated, and  so  on,  and  so  on,  for  over  seventy  pages. 
Then  he  bethought  him  of  the  three  men  who  escaped 
to  the  country;  but  at  once  breaks  off  again  and  dis- 
cusses the  order  for  killing  dogs  and  cats.  Finally, 
however,  "I  come  back  to  my  three  men,''  whom  he 
sticks  pretty  close  to  for  about  eight  pages ;  then  he 
drops  them  for  a  couple  of  pages  to  follow  the  prog- 
ress of  the  Plague  about  Wapping,  Ratcliff,  etc.,  at  last 

[95] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

"to  return  to  my  travellers, ' '  which  he  does  rather 
consistently,  and  concludes  his  story  with  only  one 
further  digression.  After  throwing  in  this  rather 
long-drawn-out  story  in  the  methodless  fashion  I  have 
described,  Defoe  could  return  to  his  repetitions  with 
less  chance  of  detection.  It  is  altogether  likely, 
however,  that  deception,  in  this  respect,  formed  no  part 
of  Defoe 's  intent,  that  the  haphazard  result  was  a  gen- 
uine Topsy  case. 


[96] 


IV 


From  the  foregoing  thesis  and  from  the  ap- 
pendices to  this  discussion,  it  is  abundantly  evident 
that  Defoe's  Journal  of  the  Plague  Year  is  a  faithful 
record  of  historical  facts,  that  it  was  so  intended  by 
the  author  and  is  as  nearly  correct  as  it  was  humanly 
possible  to  make  it  from  the  sources  and  time  at  his 
command.  Such  errors — few  in  number  and  slight 
in  importance — as  crept  in,  arose  from  faulty  and  con- 
fused sources,  or  from  haste,  and  are  in  no  wise  at- 
tributable to  bias  on  the  one  hand,  or  to  imagination  or 
style  on  the  other.  An  analysis  of  the  sources  and 
facts  available  to  Defoe,  and  a  comparison  of  these  to 
unpublished  letters  and  other  documents  inaccessible 
to  him,  prove  the  soundness  of  this  conclusion.  There 
is  not  one  single  statement  in  the  Journal,  pertinent  to 
the  history  of  the  Great  Plague  in  London,  that  has  not 
been  verified  during  the  course  of  this  investigation, 
even  to  the  stories  related  by  Defoe,  the  originals  of 
which,  or  parallels,  have  been  discovered. 

From  what  I  have  written  concerning  the  sources 
of  the  Journal,  it  is  clear  that  these  are  of  two  kinds. 
In  the  first  place,  there  are  the  printed  accounts  of  the 
Plague  found  in  Hodges 's  Loimologia,  Kemp's  Brief 
Treatise,  Vincent's  God's  Terrible  Voice  in  the  City, 
Thomson's  Loimotomia,  in  Golgotha,  and  numerous 
other  contemporaneous  accounts  of  the  Plague  of 
1665;  not  to  mention  historical  accounts  of  earlier 
plagues  in  other  countries,  as  those  of  Thucydides, 

[97] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

Baccaccio,  Diemerbroick,  etc.,  and  those  of  Defoe's 
contemporaries,  Mead,  Pye,  Quincy,  Chicoyneau,  and 
others.  From  these  he  got  not  only  the  facts  concern- 
ing the  origin,  symptoms,  and  treatment  of  the  dis- 
temper, bnt  also  the  effects  of  the  calamity  on  trade, 
on  the  appearance  of  the  town  and  on  the  spirits  of  the 
people,  as  well  as  many  illustrative  stories.  The 
newspapers  of  the  times  furnished  him  with  the  weekly 
Bills  of  Mortality,  the  progress  of  the  contagion, 
weather  conditions,  movements  of  the  Court,  procla- 
mations regarding  fasts,  inhibitions  of  fairs  in  various 
parts  of  the  kingdom,  the  building  of  fires  in  the 
streets  in  an  attempt  to  check  the  spread  of  the  disease* 
orders  and  prescriptions  of  the  College  of  Physicians, 
the  activities  of  the  Mayor  and  Aldermen,  advertise- 
ments of  the  quacks,  the  lists  of  charitable  contribu- 
tions the  alarms  raised  by  the  comets  of  1664,  together 
with  the  numerous  interpretations  of  their  meaning, 
accounts  of  other  prodigies,  stories  about  victims  of 
the  Plague,  etc.,  etc.  The  newspapers  were  a  perfect 
mine  of  plague  materials.  The  Bills  of  Mortality, 
prepared  by  the  Parish  Clerks,  were  also  available  in 
print  as  well  as  A  Collection  of  Very  Valuable  and 
Scarce  Pieces  Relating  to  the  Plague.  This  last  was 
much  used  by  Defoe.  Almanacks  and  other  printed 
prognostications  and  predictions  were  only  too  numer- 
ous. 

A  second  fruitful  source  that  Defoe  drew  upon  in 
writing  his  Journal  of  the  Plague  was  his  own  mem- 
ory of  the  eventful  happenings  of  1665,  and  especially 
the  many  stories  related  to  him  by  the  survivors  of 
the  Plague.     By  survivors,   I  do  not  mean  simply 

[98] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

those  who  were  still  alive  in  1722  (of  whom  there  must 
have  been  many),  but  also  those  who  lived  ten,  or  even 
five,  years  after  1665,  when  Defoe  was  at  the  greatest 
impressionable  age  to  retain  and  appreciate  the  awful- 
ness  of  the  calamity.  Thus,  for  instance,  there  is  no 
anachronic  reason  why  Defoe  should  not  have  known 
personally — and  in  some  cases  for  years — nearly  every 
one  of  the  authors  of  the  printed  sources  mentioned  in 
the  course  of  this  discussion.  Of  course  there  were 
scores  of  other  survivors  of  the  Plague  from  whom 
he  could  have  heard  the  various  stories  which  he  re- 
lates. Besides,  it  is  not  to  be  forgotten  that  a  disaster 
of  such  magnitude  was  no  nine-days  wonder;  it  must 
have  furnished  the  topic  for  the  evening  fireside  for 
many  a  year  after  the  event.  All  of  this  was  revivi- 
fied and  retold  when  the  news  of  the  Marseilles  Plague 
reached  England.  Doubtless,  many  of  Defoe's  stories 
were  first-hand;  and,  anyhow,  it  was  unnecessary 
for  him  to  invent  any  of  them, — nothing  could  surpass 
the  real  facts,  whether  they  were  wanted  for  fiction 
or  for  history. 

Of  the  two  kinds  of  materials  used  in  making  up 
the  Journal,  the  printed  are  of  chief  importance.  As 
I  have  already  shown,  these  form  not  only  the  frame- 
work of  the  book  but  also  the  bulk  of  it :  if  it  were  di- 
vested of  all  other  features,  we  would  still  have  left 
an  authentic  history  of  the  Plague,  as  fully  demon- 
strated in  section  two  of  this  essay.  Defoe  transcribes 
the  facts  without  alteration  or  equivocation.  Occa- 
sionally, when  some  mere  theory  (as  of  the  efficacy  of 
fires  in  the  street,  shutting-up,  or  other  treatment  of 
the  contagion,  is  under  discussion,  he  expresses  an 

[99] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

opinion,  a  liberty  granted  to  all  historians;  bnt  even 
in  such,  case,  Defoe  offers  nothing  new  beyond  his 
sources,  the  arguments  which  he  adduces  are  to  be 
found  there.  As  for  the  hearsay  stories  and  tradi- 
tions which  he  repeats,  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt 
their  authenticity;  there  are  many  substantiating 
parallels.  The  fact  is,  Defoe  was  over-scrupulous  in 
regard  to  these,  often  declining  to  vouch  for  them.  As 
already  pointed  out,  this  has  been  a  chief  cause  for 
classing  the  Journal  with  fiction.  In  the  first  part  of 
this  investigation  appears  a  sufficient  number  of  orig- 
inals, prototypes,  and  parallels  to  the  stories  in  the 
Journal  to  justify  their  being  classed  as  historical. 
All  historical  students  know  that  two  perfectly  au- 
thentic histories  may  be  written  from  incidents  and 
materials  differing  slightly  in  externals  but  bearing 
internal  resemblances  that  are  unmistakable.  More 
fully  to  illustrate  this  fact,  I  have  quoted  not  only 
from  sources  with  which  Defoe  was  most  certainly 
acquainted,  but  also  I  have  drawn  from  books  and 
manuscripts  of  which  he  could  not  have  known.  The 
results,  to  all  intents  and  purposes,  are  identical,  and 
for  this  reason  we  are  compelled  to  class  the  Journal 
of  the  Plague  Year  with  authentic  histories. 


[100] 


Excerpts    from    the     Original    Sources    of     the 
Journal  of  the  Plague 

APPENDIX  A. 

From  Nathaniel  Hodges's  Loimologia:  or,  An 
Historical  Account  of  the  Plague  in  London  in 
1665:  with  precautionary  Directions  against  the 
like   Contagion.     John    Quincy,   M.    D.,    Trans. 

1720. 

The  Plague  which  we  are  now  to  give  an  account  of, 
discovered  the  beginnings  of  its  future  cruelties  about  the 
close  of  the  year  1664;  for  at  that  season  two  or  three 
persons  died  suddenly  in  one  family  in  Westminster,  at- 
tended with  like  symptoms,  that  manifestly  declared  their 
origin:    hereupon  some  timorous  neighbours,  under  appre- 
hension of  a  contagion,  removed  into  the  city  of  London, 
who  unfortunately  carried  along  with  them  the  pestilential 
taint ;  whereby  that  disease  which  before  was  in  its  infancy, 
in   a   family   or   two,   suddenly   got   strength   and   spread 
abroad  its  fatal  poison;  and  merely  for  want  of  confining 
the  persons  first  seized  with  it,  the  whole  city  was  in  a 
little  time  irrecoverably  infected.     Not  unlike  what  hap- 
pened the  year  following,  when  a  small  spark,  from  an 
unknown  cause,  for  want  of  timely  care,  increased  to  such 
a  flame  that  neither  tears  of  the  people  nor  the  profusion 
of  their  Thames  could  extinguish;  and  which  laid  waste  the 
greatest  part  of  the  City  in  three  days  time :    and  therefore 
as  there  happens  to  be  no  great  difference  between  these 
two  grievous  calamities,  this  mention  of  them  together  may 
not  be  improper;   and  the  more  especially,  because  by  a 
like  irresistible  fate  from  a  fever  and  a  conflagration,  both 
the  inhabitants  and  their  houses  were  reduced  to  ashes. 

But  as  soon  as  it  was  rumoured  amongst  the  common 
people,  who  are  always  enough  astonished  at  any  thing 
new,  that  the  Plague  was  in  the  city,  it  is  impossible  to 

[101] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

relate  what  accounts  were  spread  of  its  fatality,  and  well 
were  it  had  not  the  presages  been  so  ominous;  every  one 
predicted  its  future  devastation,  and  they  terrified  each 
other  with  remembrances  of  a  former  pestilence;  for  it 
was  a  received  notion  amongst  the  common  people,  that  the 
Plague  visited  England  once  in  twenty  years;  as  if  after  a 
certain  interval,  by  some  inevitable  necessity,  it  must  re- 
turn again.  But  although  this  conceit,  how  well  soever 
justified  by  past  experience,  did  not  so  much  obtain  with 
persons  of  more  judgment,  yet  this  may  be  affirmed,  that  it 
greatly  contributed,  amongst  the  populace,  both  to  propa- 
gate and  inflame  the  contagion,  by  the  strong  impressions 
it  made  upon  their  minds. 

And  these  frightful  apprehensions  were  not  a  little 
increased  by  the  predictions  of  astrologers,  from  the  con- 
junctions of  stars,  and  the  appearances  of  comets;  for 
although  but  little  regard  was  given  to  such  things  by 
persons  of  thought,  yet  experience  duly  showed  what  in- 
fluence they  had  with  the  meaner  sort  whose  spirits  being 
manifestly  sunk  by  such  fears,  rendered  their  constitutions 
less  able  to  resist  the  contagion.  Whosoever  duly  con- 
siders it,  can  never  imagine  that  this  pestilence  had  its 
origin  from  any  conjunction  of  Saturn  and  Jupiter  in 
Sagitarius  on  the  tenth  of  October,  or  from  a  conjunction 
of  Saturn  and  Mars  in  the  same  sign  on  the  twelfth  of 
November,  which  was  the  common  opinion;  for  all  the  good 
that  happens  during  the  like  conjunctions  is  assignable  to 
the  same  causes. 

The  like  judgment  is  to  be  made  of  comets,  how  terrible 
soever  they  may  be  in  their  aspects,  and  whether  they  are 
produced  in  the  higher  regions  from  a  conglomeration  of 
many  stars,  and  returning  at  certain  periods;  or  whether 
they  are  lower,  and  the  production  of  sulphurous  exhala- 
tions, kindled  in  our  own  atmosphere;  for  there  is  nothing 
strange  in  the  ascension  of  heterogeneous  particles  into  a 
flame,  upon  their  rapid  occursions  and  collisions  against 
each  other,  howsoever  terrible  the  track  of  such  light  may 
be  circumstanced.     The  people  therefore  were  frightened 

[102] 


OF  THE  PLAGUE  YEAR 
\ 
without  reason  at  such  things,  and  the  mischief  was  much 
more  in  the  predictions  of  the  star-gazers  than  in  the  stars 
themselves:  nothing  however  could  conquer  their  sad  im- 
pressions, so  powerful  were  they  amongst  the  populace 
who  anticipated  their  unhappy  fate  with  their  fears,  and 
precipitated  their  own  destruction. 

But  to  pass  by  things  of  less  moment,  it  is  to  be  taken 
notice  that  a  very  hard  frost  set  in  in  December,  which 
continued  three  months,  and  seemed  greatly  to  deaden  the 
contagion,  and  very  few  died  during  that  season;  although 
even  then  it  was  not  extinguished,  for  in  the  middle  of 
Christmas  holidays,  I  was  called  to  a  young  man  in  a  fever, 
who  after  two  days  course  of  alexiterial  medicines,  had 
two  risings  about  the  bigness  of  a  nutmeg  broke  out,  one 
on  each  thigh;  upon  examination  of  which,  I  soon  dis- 
covered the  malignity,  both  from  their  black  hue,  and  the 
circle  round  them,  and  pronounced  it  to  be  the  plague;  in 
which  opinion  I  was  afterwards  confirmed  by  subsequent 
symptoms,  although  by  God's  blessing  the  patient  recovered. 

This  case  I  insert,  both  to  show  that  this  season  did 
not  wholly  destroy  the  distemper,  although  it  greatly  re- 
strained it;  but  upon  the  frost  breaking,  the  contagion  got 
ground,  and  gradually  got  out  of  its  confinements;  like  a 
flame  that  for  some  time  seems  smothered,  and  suddenly 
breaks  out  with  aggravated  fury. 

As  soon  as  the  magistracy,  to  whom  belonged  the 
public  care,  saw  how  the  contagion  daily  increased,  and 
had  now  extended  itself  to  several  parishes,  an  order  was 
immediately  issued  out  to  shut  up  all  the  infected  houses, 
that  neither  relations  nor  acquaintance  might  unwarily  re- 
ceive it  from  them,  and  to  keep  the  infected  from  carrying 
it  about  with  them. 

But  whether  this  method  proved  of  service  or  not,  is  to 
this  day  doubtful,  and  much  disputed;  but  it  is  my  busi- 
ness here  however  to  adhere  to  facts,  and  relate  the  argu- 
ments on  both  sides  with  all  possible  impartiality. 

In  order  whereunto,  it  is  to  be  observed,  that  a  law  was 
made  for  marking  the  houses  of  infected  persons  with  a 

[103] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

red  cross,  having  with  it  this  subscription,  LORD  HAVE 
MERCY  UPON  US :  and  that  a  guard  should  there  continu- 
ally attend  both  to  hand  to  the  sick  the  necessaries  of  food 
and  medicine,  and  to  restrain  them  from  coming  abroad 
until  forty  days  after  their  recovery.  But  although  the 
Lord  Mayor  and  all  inferior  officers  readily  and  effectually 
put  these  orders  in  execution,  yet  it  was  to  no  purpose,  for 
the  plague  more  and  more  increased;  and  the  consternation 
of  those  who  were  separated  from  all  society,  unless  with 
the  infected,  was  inexpressible;  and  the  dismal  apprehen- 
sion it  laid  them  under,  made  them  but  an  easier  prey  to 
the  devouring  enemy.  And  this  seclusion  was  on  this  ac- 
count much  the  more  intolerable,  that  if  a  fresh  person 
was  seized  in  the  same  house  but  the  day  before  another 
had  finished  the  quarantine,  it  was  to  be  performed  over 
again;  which  occasioned  such  tedious  confinements  of  sick 
and  well  together  that  some  times  caused  the  loss  of  the 
whole. 

But  what  greatly  contributed  to  the  loss  of  people 
thus  shut  up,  was  the  wicked  practices  of  nurses  (for  they 
are  not  to  be  mentioned  but  in  the  most  bitter  terms)  : 
these  wretches,  out  of  greediness  to  plunder  the  dead, 
would  strangle  their  patients,  and  charge  it  to  the  dis- 
temper in  their  throats;  others  would  secretly  convey  the 
pestilential  taint  from  sores  of  the  infected  to  those  who 
were  well;  and  nothing  indeed  deterred  these  abandoned 
miscreants  from  prosecuting  their  avaricious  purposes  by 
all  the  methods  their  wickedness  could  invent;  who,  al- 
though they  were  without  witness  to  accuse  them,  yet  it  is 
not  doubted  but  divine  vengeance  will  overtake  such  wicked 
barbarities  with  due  punishment:  nay,  some  were  remark- 
ably struck  from  heaven  in  the  perpetration  of  their 
crimes,  and  one  particularly  amongst  many,  as  she  was 
leaving  the  house  of  a  family,  all  dead,  loaded  with  her 
robberies,  fell  down  dead  under  her  burden  in  the  streets: 
and  the  case  of  a  worthy  citizen  was  very  remarkable,  who 
being  suspected  dying  by  his  nurse,  was  beforehand  stripped 
by  her;  but  recovering  again,  he  came  a  second  time  into 

[104] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE    YEAR 

the  world  naked.  And  so  many  were  the  artifices  of  these 
barbarous  wretches,  that  it  is  to  be  hoped  posterity  will 
take  warning  how  they  trust  them  again  in  like  cases;  and 
that  their  past  impunities  will  not  be  a  means  of  bringing 
on  us  again  the  like  judgment. 

Moreover,  this  shutting  up  infected  houses,  made  the 
neighbours  fly  from  theirs,  who  otherwise  might  have  been 
a  help  to  them  on  many  accounts;  and  I  verily  believe  that 
many  who  were  lost  might  have  now  been  alive,  had  not 
the  tragical  mark  upon  their  door  drove  proper  assist- 
ance from  them. 

And  this  is  confirmed  by  the  examples  of  other  pesti- 
lential contagions,  which  have  been  observed  not  to  cease 
until  the  doors  of  the  sick  were  set  open,  and  they  had  the 
privilege  of  going  abroad;  of  the  same  authority  is  the 
custom  of  other  nations  who  have  due  regard  to  that  liberty 
that  is  necessary  for  the  comforts  of  both  body  and  mind. 

It  now  remains  that  we  take  notice  of  all  that  is  of 
any  weight  on  the  other  side;  as  therefore  it  is  not  at  all 
deemed  cruel  to  take  off:  a  mortified  limb  to  save  the  whole, 
by  a  parity  of  reason  is  the  conduct  of  a  community  justi- 
fiable, who,  out  of  a  regard  to  the  public  good,  put  hard- 
ships upon  particular  persons;  in  a  pestilential  contagion 
therefore,  what  can  be  of  more  immediate  service  than 
securing  those  that  are  well  from  the  infection?  And  the 
more  especially  in  a  disease  that  reaches  not  only  the  body, 
but  taints  the  very  breath;  for  in  this  case  the  infected 
breathe  poisons  upon  the  healthful,  and  even  at  the  point 
of  death  endeavors  to  infuse  that  venom  to  others  that 
conquered  them.  From  this  delirious  pleasure  arises  those 
tricks  of  transplanting  the  corruption  of  a  pestilential 
tumour  to  another;  not  to  say  anything  of  that  woman, 
who  with  her  importunities  drew  her  unhappy  husband  into 
her  embraces,  which  ended  his  life  with  hers. 

Again,  to  take  away  all  doubtings  in  this  case,  I  am 
not  ignorant  of  what  moment  it  is  to  shut  up  the  houses  of 
all  those  who  are  infected,  according  to  custom;  for  by 
this  means  a  contagion  may  at  first  be  stifled,  which  other- 

[105] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

wise  would  go  beyond  any  remedy;  and  with  equal  ad- 
vantage might  gunpowder  be  fired,  if  too  much  time  is 
not  wasted  in  deliberation,  before  these  things  are  put 
into   practice. 

But  if  hereafter  again  a  plague  should  break  out 
(which  God  forbid),  with  submission  to  superiors,  I  should 
think  it  not  improper  to  appoint  proper  accommodations 
out  of  the  city,  for  such  as  are  yet  untouched  in  infected 
families;  and  who  should  continue  there  for  a  certain 
time;  the  sick  in  the  meantime  to  be  removed  to  convenient 
apartments  provided  on  purpose  for  them.  For  by  this 
means,  that  practice  so  abhorrent  to  religion  and  humanity, 
even  in  the  opinion  of  a  Mahometan,  of  shutting  up  the  sick 
and  well  together,  would  be  avoided. 

But  to  return:  the  infection  had  long  doubtfully 
reigned,  and  continued  through  May  and  June,  with  more 
or  less  severity;  sometimes  raging  in  one  part,  and  then  in 
another,  as  in  a  running  sort  of  fight;  as  often  as  the  num- 
ber of  funerals  decreased,  great  hopes  were  conceived  of  its 
disappearance;  then  on  a  sudden  again  their  increase  threw 
all  in  dejection,  as  if  the  whole  city  was  soon  to  be  un- 
peopled—  which  uncertainty  gave  advantage  to  the  dis- 
temper; because  persons  were  more  remiss  in  their  provi- 
sions against  it,  during  such  fluctuation. 

It  must  not  however  be  omitted,  with  what  precipita- 
tion the  trembling  inhabitants  left  the  city,  and  how  they 
flocked  in  such  crowds  out  of  town,  as  if  London  had 
quite  gone  out  of  itself,  like  the  hurry  of  a  sudden  con- 
flagration, all  doors  and  passages  are  thronged  for  escape: 
yet  after  the  chief  of  the  people  were  fled,  and  thereby  the 
nourishment  of  this  cruel  enemy  had  been  in  a  great 
measure  taken  away,  yet  it  raged  still;  and  although  it 
seemed  once  to  slay  as  Parthians  in  their  flight,  it  soon 
returned  with  redoubled  fury,  and  killed  not  by  slow  paces, 
but  almost  immediately  upon  seizure;  not  unlike  what  is 
often  seen  in  battle,  when  after  some  skirmishes  of  wings, 
and  separate  parties,  the  main  bodies  come  to  engage;  so 

[106] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

did  this  contagion  at  first  only  scatter  about  its  arrows, 
but  at  last  covered  the  whole  city  with  dead. 

Thus  therefore  in  the  space  of  one  week  were  eighty 
persons  cut  off,  and  when  things  came  to  extremity,  all 
helps  were  called  in;  though  it  began  now  to  be  solely  the 
magistrates'  business,  how  to  put  a  stop  to  this  cruel  de- 
vastation, and  save  some  part  of  the  city  at  last  from  the 
grave;  first  then  therefore  were  appointed  a  monthly  fast 
for  public  prayers,  to  deprecate  the  anger  of  heaven;  nor 
proved  it  in  vain,  or  were  their  supplications  altogether 
fruitless;  for  if  we  have  any  regard  to  the  temperature  of 
the  season,  the  whole  summer  was  refreshed  with  moderate 
breezes,  sufficient  to  prevent  the  air's  stagnation  and  cor- 
ruption, and  to  carry  off  the  pestilential  streams;  the  heat 
was  likewise  too  mild  to  encourage  such  corruption  and 
fermentation  as  helps  to  taint  the  animal  fluids,  and  pre- 
vent them  from  their  natural  state. 

The  Government,  however,  to  the  duty  of  public  pray- 
ers, neglected  not  to  add  what  assistance  might  be  had 
from  medicines;  to  which  purpose  His  Majesty,  with  the 
Divine  helps,  called  in  also  all  that  was  human,  and  by 
his  Royal  authority  commanded  the  College  of  Physicians 
of  London  jointly  to  write  somewhat  in  English  that  might 
be  a  general  directory  in  this  calamitous  exigence.  Nor 
was  it  satisfactory  to  that  honoured  Society  to  discharge 
their  regards  for  the  public  with  that  only,  but  some  were 
chose  out  of  their  number,  and  appointed  particularly  to 
attend  the  infected  on  all  occasions;  two  also  out  of  the 
court  of  Aldermen  were  required  to  see  this  hazardous 
task  executed;  so  that  encouraged  with  all  proper  means, 
this  province  was  cheerfully  undertaken,  and  all  possible 
caution  was  used  fully  to  answer  the  intention;  but  this 
task  was  too  much  for  four  persons,  and  wanted  rather  the 
concurrence  of  the  whole  Faculty;  we  were  however 
ashamed  to  give  it  up,  and  used  our  utmost  application 
therein;  but  all  our  care  and  pains  were  eluded,  for  the 
disease,  like  the  hydra's  heads,  was  no  sooner  extinguished 
in  one  family,  but  it  broke  out  in  many  more  with  ag- 

[107] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES    OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

gravations,  so  that  in  a  little  time  we  found  our  task  too 
great,  and  despaired  of  putting  an  entire  stop  to  the  in- 
fection. 

Nor  was  there  at  this  time  wanting  the  help  of  very 
great  and  worthy  persons  who  voluntarily  contributed  their 
assistances  in  this  dangerous  work;  amongst  the  number 
of  which  the  learned  Dr.  Glisson,  Regius  Professor  at  Cam- 
bridge, Dr.  Nath.  Paget,  Dr.  Wharton,  Dr.  Berwick,  Dr. 
Brookes,  and  many  others  who  are  yet  alive,  deserve  very 
honourable  mention;  but  eight  or  nine  fell  in  this  work, 
who  were  too  much  loaded  with  the  spoils  of  the  enemy; 
and  amongst  these  was  Dr.  Conyers  whose  goodness  and 
humanity  claim  an  honourable  remembrance  with  all  who 
survive  him. 

After  then  all  endeavours  to  restrain  the  contagion 
proved  of  no  effect,  we  applied  ourselves  to  the  care  of  the 
diseased;  and  in  the  prosecution  of  which,  it  may  be  af- 
firmed without  boasting,  no  hazards  to  ourselves  were 
avoided.  But  it  is  incredible  to  think  how  the  plague 
raged  amongst  the  common  people,  insomuch  that  it  came 
by  some  to  be  called  "the  poor's  plague."  Yet,  although 
the  more  opulent  had  left  the  town,  and  that  it  was  almost 
left  uninhabited,  the  commonality  that  were  left  felt  little 
of  want;  for  their  necessities  were  relieved  with  a  profu- 
sion of  good  things  from  the  wealthy,  and  their  poverty 
was  supported  with  plenty.  A  more  manifest  cause  there- 
fore for  such  a  devastation  amongst  them  I  shall  assign 
in  another  place. 

In  the  months  of  August  and  September,  the  contagion 
changed  its  former  slow  and  languid  pace,  and  having  as 
it  were  got  master  of  all,  made  a  most  terrible  slaughter, 
so  that  three,  four,  or  five  thousand  died  in  a  week,  and 
once  eight  thousand.  Who  can  express  the  calamities  of 
such  times  ?  The  whole  British  nation  wept  for  the  miseries 
of  her  metropolis.  In  some  houses  carcasses  lay  waiting 
for  burial,  and  in  others  persons  in  their  last  agonies;  in 
one  room  might  be  heard  dying  groans,  in  another  the 
raving  of  delirium,  and  not  far  off:  relations  and  friends 

[108] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

bewailing  both  their  loss  and  the  dismal  prospect  of  their 
own  sudden  departure.    Death  was  the  sure  midwife  to  all 
children,  and  infants  passed  immediately  from  the  womb 
to  the  grave.     Who  would  not  burst  with  grief  to  see  the 
stock  for  a  future  generation  hanging  upon  the  breasts  of 
a  dead  mother?     Or  the  marriage-bed   changed  the   first 
night  into  a  sepulchre,  and  the  unhappy  pair  meet  with 
death  in  their  first  embraces?     Some  of  the  infected  ran 
about  staggering  like  drunken  men,  and  fell  and  expired 
in  the  streets;  while  others  lie  half-dead  and  comatose,  but 
never   to   be   waked   but   by   the   last   trumpet;    some   lie 
vomiting  as  if  they  had  drunk  poison;  and  others  fell  dead 
in  the  market,  while  they  were  buying  necessaries  for  the 
support  of  life.     Not  much  unlike  was  it  in  the  following 
conflagration,    where    altars    themselves    became    so    many 
victims,  and  the  finest  churches  in  the  whole  world  carried 
up  to  heaven  supplications  in  flames,  while  their  marble 
pillars  wet  with  tears  melted  like  wax;  nor  were  monu- 
ments secure  from  the  inexorable  flames,  where  many  of 
their  venerable  remains  passed  a  second  martyrdom;  the 
most  august  palaces  were  soon  laid  waste,  and  the  flames 
seemed  to  be  in  a  fatal  engagement  to  destroy  the  great 
ornament  to  commerce;  and  the  burning  of  all  the  com- 
modities of  the  world  together  seemed  a  proper  epitome  of 
this    conflagration;    neither    confederate    crowns    nor    the 
drawn  swords  of  kings  could  restrain  its  phanatic  and  rebel- 
lious rage;  large  halls,  stately  houses,  and  the  sheds  of  the 
poor  were  together  reduced  to  ashes;  the  sun  blushed  to 
see  himself  set,  and  envied  those  flames  the  government  of 
the  night,  which  had  rivalled  him  so  many  days.     As  the 
city,  I  say,  was  afterwards  burnt  without  any  distinction, 
in  like  manner  did  this  plague  spare  no  order,  age,  or  sex. 
The  divine  was  taken  in  the  very  exercise  of  his  priestly 
office  to  be  enrolled  amongst  the  saints  above;   and  some 
physicians,   as  before  intimated,  could  not  find  assistance 
in  their  own  antidotes,  but  died  in  the  administration  of 
them  to  others;    and  although  the  soldiery  retreated  from 
the  field  of  death,  and  encamped  out  of  the  city,  the  con- 

[109] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

tagion  followed  and  vanquished  them.  Many  in  their  old 
age,  others  in  their  prime,  sunk  under  its  cruelties.  Of  the 
female  sex  most  died;  and  hardly  any  children  escaped; 
and  it  was  not  uncommon  to  see  an  inheritance  pass  suc- 
cessively to  three  or  four  heirs  in  as  many  days.  The 
number  of  sextons  was  not  sufficient  to  bury  the  dead; 
the  bells  seemed  hoarse  with  continual  tolling,  until  at 
last  they  quite  ceased;  the  burying  places  would  not  hold 
the  dead,  but  they  were  thrown  into  large  pits  dug  in 
waste  grounds,  in  heaps,  thirty  or  forty  together;  and  it 
often  happened  that  those  who  tended  the  funerals  of  their 
friends  one  evening  were  carried  the  next  to  their  long  home. 
.  .  .  Quis  talia  fundo 

Temper -et  a  lachrymisf 
Even  the  relation   of  this   calamity  melts  me  into   tears. 
And  yet  the  worst  was  not  certain,  although  the  city  was 
near  drained  by  her  funerals,  for  the  disease  as  yet  had 
no  relaxation. 

About  the  beginning  of  September,  the  disease  was  at 
its  height;  in  the  course  of  which  month  more  than  twelve 
thousand  died  in  a  week.  But  at  length,  that  nothing  might 
go  untried  to  divert  the  contagion,  it  was  ordered  by  the 
governors  who  were  left  to  superintend  those  calamitous 
affairs  (for  the  Court  was  then  removed  to  Oxford),  to 
burn  fires  in  the  streets  for  three  days  together;  yet  while 
this  was  in  debate,  the  physicians  concerned  were  diffident 
of  the  success,  as  the  air  in  itself  was  uninfected,  and  there- 
fore rendered  such  a  showy  and  expensive  a  project  super- 
fluous and  of  no  effect;  and  these  conjectures  we  supported 
by  the  authority  of  antiquity,  and  Hippocrates  himself; 
notwithstanding  which,  the  fires  were  kindled  in  all  the 
streets.  But  alas!  the  controversy  was  soon  decided,  for 
before  the  three  days  were  quite  expired  the  heavens  both 
mourned  so  many  funerals,  and  wept  for  the  fatal  mistake, 
so  as  to  extinguish  even  the  fires  with  their  showers.  I  shall 
not  determine  any  other  person's  conjecture  in  this  case, 
whether  these  fires  may  more  properly  be  deemed  the 
ominous  forerunners  of  the  ensuing  conflagrations,  or  the 

[110] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

ensuing  funerals;  but  whether  it  was  from  the  suffocating 
qualities  of  the  fuel,  or  the  wet  constitution  of  the  air  that 
immediately  followed,  the  most  fatal  night  ensued  wherein 
more  than  four  thousand  perished.  May  posterity  by  this 
mistake  be  warned,  and  not,  like  empirics,  apply  a  remedy 
where  they  are  ignorant  of  the  cause. 

The  reader  is  by  the  way  to  be  advertised  that  the 
year  was  luxuriant  in  most  fruits,  especially  cherries  and 
grapes  which  were  at  so  low  a  price  that  the  common  peo- 
ple surfeited  with  them;  for  this  might  very  much  con- 
tribute to  the  disposition  of  the  body,  as  made  this  pestilen- 
tial taint  more  easily  take  place. 

Nor  ought  we  here  to  pass  by  the  beneficent  assistance 
of  the  rich,  and  the  care  of  the  magistrates ;  for  the  markets 
being  open  as  usual,  and  a  great  plenty  of  all  provisions 
was  a  great  help  to  support  the  sick,  so  that  there  was  the 
reverse  of  a  famine  which  hath  been  observed  to  be  so  fatal 
to  pestilential  contagions ;  and  in  this  the  goodness  of  heaven 
is  always  to  be  remembered,  in  alleviating  a  common  misery 
by  such  a  provision  of  good  things  from  the  stores  of 
nature. 

But  as  it  were  to  balance  this  immediate  help  of 
Providence,  nothing  was  otherwise  wanting  to  aggravate 
the  common  destruction,  and  to  which  nothing  more  con- 
tributed than  the  practice  of  chymists  and  quacks,  and  of 
whose  audacity  and  ignorance  it  is  impossible  to  be  alto- 
gether silent.  They  were  indefatigable  in  spreading  their 
antidotes;  and  although  equal  strangers  to  all  learning  as 
well  as  physic,  they  thrust  into  every  hand  some  trash  or 
other  under  the  disguise  of  a  pompous  title.  No  country, 
surely,  ever  abounded  with  such  wicked  impostors;  for  all 
events  contradicted  their  pretensions,  and  hardly  a  person 
escaped  that  trusted  to  their  delusions.  Their  medicines 
were  more  fatal  than  the  plague,  and  added  to  the  numbers 
of  the  dead.  But  these  blowers  of  the  pestilential  flame 
were  caught  in  the  common  ruin,  and  by  their  death  in 
some  measure  excused  the  neglect  of  the  magistrates  in 
suffering  their  practice. 

[Ill] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

.  .  .  Nee  lex  est  jjustior  ulla 

Quam  necis  artifices  arte  perire  sua. 

About  this  time  a  person  of  distinction  and  great 
humanity,  going  to  France  upon  some  affairs  of  State, 
heard  that  some  Frenchmen  were  masters  of  the  anti- 
pestilential  remedy,  and  took  care  to  send  some  doses  of 
it  over  here.  By  command  of  the  Government  we  were 
ordered  to  try  it  with  due  caution,  which  we  did  with  ex- 
pectations of  uncommon  success;  but  the  mountain  brought 
forth  death,  for  the  medicine,  which  was  a  mineral  prepara- 
tion, threw  the  patients  into  their  last  sleep.  May  it  never 
hereafter  be  enjoined  to  try  experiments  with  unknown  and 
foreign  medicines  upon  the  lives  even  of  the  meanest 
persons!  For  certainly  nothing  is  more  abhorrent  to 
reason  than  to  impose  a  universal  remedy  in  cases  whose 
curative  intentions  are  different  and  sometimes  opposite; 
and  the  various  indications  of  pestilence  require  very  dif- 
ferent methods  of  remedy,  as  shall  hereafter  be  further 
demonstrated  [in  the  Section  dealing  with  the  "Cure  of 
the  Pestilence"]. 

To  this  may  be  added  that  many  common  medicines 
were  publicly  sold,  which  by  their  extraordinary  heat  and 
disposition  to  inflame  the  blood  could  never  be  fit  for  every 
age,  sex,  and  constitution  indifferently,  and  therefore  in 
many  cases  must  undoubtedly  do  harm.  On  this  account 
not  only  the  sacred  art,  but  the  public  health  also,  suffered; 
yet  we  who  were  particularly  employed  in  this  affair  as 
physicians,  used  all  solicitations  with  the  magistracy  to 
restrain  such  practices  in  order  to  stop  the  ruin  they  ag- 
gravated. Hence,  notwithstanding  it  was  made  a  question 
whether  in  a  plague,  where  so  many  physicians  retire  (not 
so  much  for  their  own  preservation  as  the  service  of  those 
whom  they  attend),  it  is  not  expedient  for  every  one,  ac- 
cording to  his  abilities,  to  do  his  utmost  in  averting  a  com- 
mon ruin?  In  the  same  manner  as  in  a  fire  all  hands  are 
required,  even  of  the  crowd  as  well  as  workmen,  to  ex- 
tinguish it. 

[112] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

But  in  this  case  my  own  opinion  is  determined :  in  the 
restoration  of  health,  a  person  must  proceed  with  more 
caution  and  deliberation  than  in  the  supposed  case  of  a 
fire;  for  there  are  difficulties  occur  in  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine which  are  insuperable  but  by  the  unlearned;  and  the 
fine  texture  of  a  human  body  is  not  to  be  managed  by  as 
clumsy  hands  as  the  materials  of  a  house;  in  the  former, 
if  a  person  makes  a  mistake,  it  is  with  great  difficulty  re- 
paired; and,  therefore,  upon  a  serious  consideration  of 
the  whole  affair,  I  cannot  make  any  doubt,  but  it  is  much 
better  to  want  physicians  in  such  calamities,  than  to  have 
the  sick  under  the  care  and  management  of  the  unlearned; 
for  such  persons,  like  those  who  fight  blindfold,  know  not 
in  what  parts  to  attack  the  enemy,  nor  with  what  weapons 
to  do  it ;  besides  which,  they  are  also  in  hazard  of  obstruct- 
ing these  efforts  of  nature,  which  would  many  times  without 
help,  if  not  thus  hindered,  get  the  better  of  the  distemper. 

Nor  in  this  account  are  we  to  neglect,  that  the  con- 
tagion spread  its  cruelties  into  the  neighbouring  countries; 
for  the  citizens,  which  crowded  in  multitudes  into  the  adja- 
cent towns,  carried  the  infection  along  with  them,  where 
it  raged  with  equal  fury ;  so  that  the  plague,  which  at  first 
crept  from  one  street  to  another,  now  reigned  over  whole 
counties,  leaving  hardly  any  place  free  from  its  insults; 
and  the  towns  upon  the  Thames  were  more  severely  handled, 
not  perhaps  from  a  great  moisture  in  the  air  from  thence, 
but  from  the  tainted  goods  rather  that  were  carried  up  it. 
Moreover,  some  cities  and  towns  of  the  most  advantageous 
situation  for  a  wholesome  air,  did  notwithstanding  feel  the 
common  ruin.  Such  was  the  rise  and  such  the  progress  of 
this  cruel  destroyer  which  first  began  at  London. 

But  the  worst  part  of  the  year  being  now  over,  and  the 
height  of  the  disease,  the  plague  by  leisurely  degrees  de- 
clined, as  it  had  gradually  made  its  first  advances;  and  be- 
fore the  number  infected  decreased,  its  malignity  began  to 
relax,  insomuch  that  few  died,  and  those  chiefly  such  as  were 
ill  managed.  Hereupon  that  dread  which  had  been  upon 
the  minds  of  the  people  wore  off;  and  the  sick  cheerfully 

[113] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

used  all  the  means  directed  for  their  recovery;  and  even 
the  nurses  grew  either  more  cautious  or  more  faithful; 
insomuch  that  after  some  time  a  dawn  of  health  appeared 
as  sudden  and  as  unexpected  as  the  cessation  of  the  follow- 
ing conflagration,  wherein  after  blowing  up  of  houses, 
and  using  all  means  for  its  extinction  to  little  purpose,  the 
flames  stopped  as  it  were  of  themselves,  for  want  of  fuel 
or  out  of  shame  for  having  devoured  so  much. 

The  pestilence  however  did  not  stop  for  want  of  sub- 
jects to  act  upon  (as  then  commonly  rumoured),  but  from 
the  nature  of  the  distemper  its  decrease  was  like  its  be- 
ginning, moderate;  nor  is  it  less  to  be  wondered  at  that  as 
at  the  rise  of  the  contagion  all  other  distempers  went  into 
that,  so  now  at  its  declension  that  degenerated  into  others, 
as  inflammations,  headaches,  quinsies,  dysenteries,  smallpox, 
measles,  fevers,  and  hectics;  wherein  that  also  yet  pre- 
dominated, as  hereafter  will  be  further  shown  [in  the 
Section  on  "The  Signs  of  the  late  Pestilence"]. 

About  the  close  of  the  year,  that  is,  on  the  beginning 
of  November,  people  grew  more  healthful,  and  such  a  dif- 
ferent face  was  put  upon  the  public,  that  although  the 
funerals  were  yet  frequent,  yet  many  who  had  made  most 
haste  in  retiring,  made  the  most  to  return,  and  came  into 
the  city  without  fear;  insomuch  that  in  December  they 
crowded  back  as  thick  as  they  fled.  The  houses  which  be- 
fore were  so  full  of  the  dead,  were  inhabited  now  by  the 
living,  and  the  shops  which  had  been  most  part  of  the  year 
shut  up  were  again  opened,  and  the  people  again  cheerfully 
went  about  their  wonted  affairs  of  trade  and  employ;  and 
even,  what  is  almost  beyond  belief,  those  citizens  who  be- 
fore were  afraid  of  their  friends  and  relations,  would  with- 
out fear  enter  the  houses  and  rooms  where  infected  persons 
had  but  a  little  while  before  breathed  their  last.  Nay,  such 
comforts  did  inspire  the  languishing  people,  and  confi- 
dence, that  many  went  into  the  beds  where  persons  had 
died,  before  they  were  even  cold  or  cleansed  from  the 
stench  of  the  diseased.  They  had  the  courage  now  to 
marry  again,  and  betake  to   the  means  of  repairing  the 

[114] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

past  mortality;  and  even  women  before  deemed  barren 
were  said  to  prove  prolific,  so  that  although  the  contagion 
had  carried  off,  as  some  computed,  about  one  hundred 
thousand,  after  a  few  months  their  loss  was  hardly  dis- 
cernible, and  thus  ended  this  fatal  year. 

But  the  next  Spring,  indeed,  appeared  some  remains 
of  the  contagion,  which  was  easily  conquered  by  the  physi- 
cians, and,  like  the  termination  of  a  common  intermittent, 
ended  in  a  healthful  recovery;  whereupon  the  whole  ma- 
lignity ceasing,  the  city  returned  to  a  perfect  health;  not 
unlike  what  happened  also  after  the  last  conflagration, 
when  a  new  city  suddenly  arose  out  of  the  ashes  of  the 
old,  much  better  able  to  stand  the  like  flames  another  time. 


[115] 


APPENDIX    B. 

From  Vincent's  God's  Terrible  Voice  in  the  City,  1667. 

It  was  in  the  year  of  our  Lord  1665,  that  the  Plague 
began  in  our  City  of  London,  after  we  were  warned  by  the 
great  Plague  in  Holland,  in  the  year  1664,  and  the  begin- 
ning of  it  in  some  remote  parts  of  our  Land  in  the  same 
year;  not  to  speak  any  thing  whether  there  was  any  signifi- 
cation and  influence  in  the  Blazing-Star  not  long  before, 
that  appeared  in  the  view  of  London,  and  struck  some 
amazement  upon  the  spirits  of  many :  It  was  in  the  month 
of  May  that  the  Plague  was  first  taken  notice  of;  our  Bill 
of  Mortality  did  let  us  know  of  but  three  which  died  of 
the  disease  in  the  whole  year  before;  but  in  the  beginning 
of  May  the  Bill  tells  us  of  nine,  which  fell  by  the  Plague, 
one  just  in  the  heart  of  the  City,  the  other  eight  in  the 
Suburbs.  This  was  the  first  arrow  of  warning  that  was 
shot  from  Heaven  amongst  us,  and  fear  begins  quickly  to 
creep  upon  peoples  hearts;  great  thoughts  and  discourse 
there  is  in  Town  about  the  Plague,  and  they  cast  in  their 
minds  whither  they  should  go  if  the  Plague  should  increase. 
Yet  when  the  next  weeks  Bill  signifieth  to  them  the  di- 
sease from  9  to  3,  their  minds  are  something  appeased; 
discourse  of  this  subject  cools;  fears  are  husht;  and  hope 
takes  place,  that  the  black  cloud  did  but  threaten,  and 
give  a  few  drops;  but  the  wind  would  drive  it  away.  But 
when  in  the  next  Bill  the  number  of  the  dead  by  the  Plague 
is  amounted  from  3  to  14,  and  in  the  next  to  17,  and  in 
the  next  to  43,  and  the  disease  begins  so  much  to  increase 
and  disperse,   [fears  are  again  aroused]. 

Now  secure  sinners  begin  to  be  startled,  and  those 
that  would  have  slept  at  quiet  still  in  their  nests,  are  un- 
willingly awakened.  Now  a  great  consternation  seizeth 
upon  most  persons,  and  fearful  bo  dings  of  a  desolating 
judgment.     Now  guilty  sinners  begin  to  look  about  them, 

[116] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

and  think  with  themselves  into  what  corner  of  the  Land 
they  might  fly  to  hide  them.  Now  the  prophane  and 
sensual,  if  they  have  not  remorse  for  their  sins,  yet  dread 
and  terrors,  the  effects  of  guilt,  they  could  not  drive  from 
them ;  and  if  by  company,  and  carousing,  and  soft  pleasures 
they  do  intoxicate  and  smoothen  their  spirits  in  the  day; 
yet  we  may  guess  what  dread  doth  come  upon  them,  if 
they  give  but  any  room  for  retirement,  and  what  hideous 
thoughts  such  persons  have  in  the  silent  night,  through 
fears  of  death  which  they  are  in  danger  of.  Now  those 
who  did  not  believe  in  any  unseen  God,  are  afraid  of  un- 
seen arrows;  and  those  which  slighted  Gods  threatnings  of 
eternal  judgments,  do  tremble  at  his  execution  of  one,  and 
not  the  greatest  temporal  judgment.  Now  those  which  had 
as  it  were  challenged  the  God  of  Heaven,  and  defied  him 
by  their  horrid  oaths  and  blasphemies,  when  he  begins  to 
appear,  they  retreat,  yea  fly  away  with  terror  and  amaze- 
ment. The  great  Orbs  begin  first  to  move;  the  Lords  and 
Gentry  retire  into  their  Countries;  their  remote  houses  are 
prepared,  goods  removed,  and  London  is  quickly  upon 
their  backs:  few  truffling  Gallants  walk  the  streets:  few 
spotted  Ladies  to  be  seen  at  windows:  a  great  forsaking 
there  was  of  the  recent  places  where  the  Plague  did  first 
rage. 

In  June  the  number  encreaseth  from  an  43  to  112;  the 
next  week  to  168,  the  next  to  267,  the  next  to  470,  most 
of  which  encrease  was  in  the  remote  parts;  few  in  this 
month  within,  or  near  the  walls  of  the  City;  and  few  that 
had  any  note  for  goodness  or  profession,  were  visited  at 
first;  God  gave  them  warning  to  think  and  prepare  them- 
selves; yet  some  few  that  were  choice,  were  visited  pretty 
soon,  that  the  best  might  not  promise  to  themselves  a 
supercedeas,  or  interpret  any  place  of  Scripture  so  liter- 
ally, as  if  the  Lord  had  promised  an  absolute  general  im- 
munity and  defence  of  his  own  people  from  this  disease 
of  the  Plague. 

Now  the  Citizens  of  London  are  put  to  a  stop  in  the 
career  of  their  trade;  they  begin  to  fear  whom  they  con- 

[117] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

verse  withall,  and  deal  withall,  lest  they  should  have  come 
out  of  infected  places.  Now  Roses  and  other  sweet  Flowers 
wither  in  the  Garden,  are  disregarded  in  the  Markets,  and 
people  dare  not  offer  them  to  their  noses,  lest  with  their 
sweet  savour,  that  which  is  infectious  should  be  atracted: 
Rue  and  Wormwood  is  taken  into  the  hand;  Myrrhe  and 
Zedoary  are  taken  into  the  mouth;  and  without  some  anti- 
dote few  stir  abroad  in  the  morning.  Now  many  houses 
are  shut  up  where  the  Plague  comes,  and  the  inhabitants 
shut  in,  lest  coming  abroad  should  spread  infection.  It 
was  very  dismal  to  behold  the  Red  Crosses,  and  read  in 
great  letters  LORD  HAVE  MERCY  UPON  US,  on  the 
doors,  and  Watchmen  standing  before  them  with  Halberts, 
and  such  a  solitude  about  those  places,  and  people  passing 
by  them  so  gingerly,  and  with  such  fearful  looks,  as  if  they 
had  been  lined  with  enemies  in  ambush,  and  waited  to 
destroy    them. 

Now  rich  Tradesmen  provide  themselves  to  depart;  if 
they  have  not  Countrey-houses,  they  seek  Lodgings  abroad 
for  themselves  and  Families,  and  the  poorer  Tradesmen, 
that  they  may  imitate  the  rich  in  their  fear,  stretch  them- 
selves to  take  a  Countrey-journey,  though  they  have  scarce 
wherewithall  to  bring  them  back  again.  The  Ministers  also 
(many  of  them)  take  occasion  to  go  to  their  Countrey- 
places  for  the  Summer-time;  or  (it  may  be)  to  find  out 
some  few  of  their  Parishioners  that  were  gone  before  them, 
leaving  the  greatest  part  of  their  Flock  without  food  or 
physick,  in  the  time  of  their  greatest  need.  (I  don't  speak 
of  all  Ministers,  those  which  did  stay  out  of  choice  and 
duty,  deserve  true  honour).  ...  I  do  not  blame  many 
Citizens  retiring,  when  there  was  so  little  trading,  and 
the  presence  of  all  might  have  help  forward  the  encrease 
and  spreading  of  the  Infection;  but  how  did  guilt  drive 
many  away,  where  duty  would  have  engaged  them  to  stay 
in  the  place?  Now  the  highways  are  thronged  with  pas- 
sengers and  goods,  and  London  doth  empty  itself  into  the 
Countrey;  great  are  the  stirs  and  hurries  in  London  by 
the  removal  of  so  many  families ;  fear  puts  many  thousands 

[118] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

on  the  wing,  and  those  think  themselves  most  safe,  that  can 
flye  furtherest  off  from  the  City. 

In  July  the  Plague  encreaseth  and  prevaileth  exceed- 
ingly, the  number  of  470  which  dyes  in  one  week  by  the 
disease,  ariseth  to  725  the  next  week,  to  1089  the  next,  to 
1843  the  next,  to  2010  the  next.  Now  the  Plague  com- 
passeth  the  Walls  of  the  City  like  a  flood,  and  poureth  in 
upon  it.  Now  most  Parishes  are  infected  both  without  and 
within:  yea,  there  are  not  so  many  houses  shut  up  by  the 
Plague,  as  by  the  owners  forsaking  them  for  fear  of  it; 
and  the  Inhabitants  be  so  exceedingly  decreased  by  the 
departure  of  so  many  thousands,  yet  the  number  of  dying 
persons  encrease  fearfully.  Now  the  Countries  keep 
guards,  lest  infectious  persons  from  the  City  bring  the 
Disease  into  them;  most  of  the  rich  are  now  gone,  and  the 
middle  sort  will  not  stay  behind;  But  the  poor  are  forced 
(through  poverty)  to  stay,  and  abide  the  storm.  Now  most 
faces  gather  paleness,  and  what  dismal  apprehensions  do 
then  fill  their  minds,  what  dreadful  fears  do  there  possess 
their  spirits.  .  .  ,  and  the  very  sinking  fears  they  have  had 
of  the  Plague,  hath  brought  the  Plague  and  the  death 
upon  many;  some  by  the  sight  of  a  Coffin  in  the  streets, 
have  fallen  into  a  shivering,  and  immediately  the  death 
hath  assaulted  them,  and  clapt  too  the  doors  of  their 
houses  upon  them,  from  whence  they  have  come  forth  no 
more,  till  they  have  been  brought  forth  to  their  graves;  we 
may  imagine  the  hideous  thoughts,  and  horrid  perplexity 
of  mind,  the  tremblings,  confusions,  and  anguish  of  spirit, 
which  some  awakened  sinners  have  had,  when  the  Plague 
hath  broke  in  upon  their  houses,  and  seized  upon  near 
Relations,  whose  dying  groans  sounding  in  their  ears  have 
warned  them  to  prepare;  when  their  doors  have  been  shut 
up,  and  fastned  on  the  outside  with  an  Inscription, 
Lord  have  mercy  upon  us,  and  none  suffered  to  come  in 
but  a  nurse,  whom  they  have  been  more  afraid  of  than 
the  Plague  itself;  when  Lovers  and  Friends,  and  Com- 
panions in  sin  have  stood  aloof,  and  not  dared  to  come 
nigh  the  door  of  the  house,  lest  death  should  issue  forth 

£119] 


HISTORICAL    SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S    JOURNAL 

from  thence  upon  them,  especially  when  the  disease  hath 
invaded  themselves,  and  first  began  with  a  pain  and  diziness 
in  their  head,  then  trembling  in  their  own  members;  when 
they  have  felt  boiles  to  arise  under  their  arms,  and  in 
their  groins,  and  seen  blains  to  come  forth  in  other  parts: 
when  the  disease  hath  wrought  in  them  to  that  height,  as 
to  send  forth  those  spots  which  (most  think)  are  the 
certain  Tokens  of  near  approaching  death;  and  now  they 
have  received  the  sentence  of  death  within  themselves,  and 
have  certainly  concluded,  that  within  a  few  hours  they 
must  go  down  into  the  dust,  and  their  naked  souls,  without 
the  case  of  their  body,  must  make  its  passage  into  eternity, 
and  appear  before  the  Highest  Majesty,  to  render  their 
accounts,  and  receive  their  sentence:  None  can  utter  the 
horror  which  hath  been  upon  the  spirits  of  such,  through 
the  lashes  and  stings  of  their  guilty  consciences,  when  they 
have  called  to  mind  a  life  of  sensuality,  and  profaneness, 
their  unci eann ess,  drunkenness,  injustice,  oaths,  curses, 
derision  of  Saints  and  holiness,  neglect  of  their  own  salva- 
tion, and  when  a  thousand  sins  have  been  set  in  order, 
before  their  eyes,  with  another  aspect  than  when  they 
looked  upon  them  in  the  temptation.  .  .  . 

In  August  .  .  .  the  people  fall  as  thick  as  leaves  from 
the  Trees  in  Autumn  .  .  .,  and  there  is  a  dismal  solitude  in 
London-streets.  .  .  .  Now  shops  are  shut  in,  people  rare 
and  very  few  that  walk  about,  insomuch  that  the  grass 
begins  to  spring  up  in  some  places,  and  a  deep  silence  al- 
most in  every  place,  especially  within  the  Walls;  no  rat- 
tling Coaches,  no  prancing  Horses,  no  calling  in  Customers, 
nor  offering  Wares,  no  London  Cryes  sounding  in  the  ears; 
if  any  voice  be  heard  it  is  the  groans  of  dying  persons, 
breathing  forth  their  last;  and  the  Funeral-knells  of  them 
that  are  ready  to  be  carried  to  their  Graves.  Now  shutting 
up  of  Visited-Houses  (there  being  so  many)  is  at  an  end, 
and  most  of  the  well  are  mingled  among  the  sick,  which 
otherwise  would  have  got  no  help.  Now  in  some  places 
where  the  people  did  generally  stay,  not  one  house  in  an 
hundred   but   is   infected,    and   in   many   houses   half   the 

[120] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

Family  is  swept  away;  in  some  the  whole,  .  .  .  Now  the 
nights  are  too  short  to  bury  the  dead,  the  whole  day  (though 
at  so  great  a  length)  is  hardly  sufficient  to  light  the  dead 
that  fall  therein,  into  their  beds. 

Now  we  could  hardly  go  forth,  but  we  should  meet 
many  Coffins,  and  see  many  with  sores  and  limping  in  the 
streets;  amongst  other  sad  spectacles,  methought  two  were 
very  affecting;  one  of  a  woman  coming  alone,  and  weeping 
by  the  door  where  I  lived  (which  was  in  the  midst  of  the 
infection)  with  a  little  Coffin  under  her  arm,  carrying  it 
to  the  new  Church-yard:  I  did  judg  that  it  was  the 
mother  of  the  child,  and  that  all  the  Family  besides  was 
dead,  and  she  was  forced  to  Coffin  up,  and  bury  with  her 
own  hands  this  her  last  dead  child.  Another,  was  of  a  man 
at  the  corner  of  the  Artillery-wall,  that  as  I  judg  through 
the  diziness  of  his  head  with  the  disease,  which  seized  upon 
him  there,  had  dasht  his  face  against  the  wall,  and  when  I 
came  by,  he  lay  hanging  with  his  bloody  face  over  the  rails, 
and  bleeding  upon  the  ground;  and  as  I  came  back  he 
was  removed  under  a  tree  in  More-fields  and  lay  upon  his 
back;  I  went  and  spake  to  him;  he  could  make  me  no 
answer,  but  ratled  in  the  throat,  and  as  I  was  informed, 
within  half  an  hour  dyed  in  the  place. 

It  would  be  endless  to  speak  what  we  have  seen  and 
heard  of  some  of  their  frensies,  rising  out  of  their  beds 
and  leaping  about  their  rooms;  others  crying  and  roaring 
at  their  windows;  some  coming  forth  almost  naked,  and 
running  into  the  streets;  strange  words  have  others  spoken 
and  done  when  the  disease  was  upon  them;  But  it  was 
very  sad  to  hear  of  one  who  being  sick  alone,  and  it  is 
likely  frantick,  burnt  himself  in  his  bed.  Now  the  Plague 
had  broken  in  much  amongst  my  acquaintance;  and  about 
sixteen  or  more  whose  faces  I  used  to  see  every  day  in  our 
house,  within  a  little  while  I  could  find  but  four  or  six 
of  them  alive;  scarcely  a  day  passed  over  my  head  for  I 
think  a  month  or  more  together,  but  I  should  hear  of  the 
death  of  some  one  or  more  that  I  knew.  .  .  . 

[121] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

In  September  the  Grave  doth  open  its  month  without 
measure.  .  .  .  The  Church-yards  now  are  stuft  so  full  of 
dead  corpses,  that  they  are  in  many  places  swelTd  two  or 
three  feet  higher  then  they  were  before;  and  new  ground 
is  broken  up  to  bury  the  dead. 

•  •••••• 

Now  some  Ministers,  formerly  put  out  of  their  places, 
did  -  abide  in  the  City  when  most  of  Ministers  in  place 
were  fled  and  gone  from  the  people  as  well  as  the  disease, 
into  the  Countreys,  seeing  the  people  crowd  so  fast  into 
the  grave  and  eternity,  who  seemed  to  cry  as  they  went, 
for  spiritual  physicians;  and  perceiving  that  the  Churches 
to  be  open,  and  the  Pulpits  to  be  open,  and  finding  Pam- 
phlets flung  about  the  streets,  of  Pulpits  to  be  let,  they 
judged  that  the  Law  of  God  and  Nature  did  now  dispense 
with,  yea  command  their  Preaching  in  Publick  places, 
though  the  Law  of  man  .  .  .  did  forbid  them  to  do  it.  .  .  . 

Now  there  is  such  a  vast  concourse  of  people  in  the 
Churches  where  these  Ministers  are  to  be  found,  that  they 
cannot  many  times  come  near  the  Pulpit-doors  for  the 
press,  but  are  forced  to  clamber  over  the  Pews  to  them: 
And  such  a  face  is  now  seen  in  the  Assemblies,  as  seldom 
was  seen  before  in  London,  such  eager  looks,  such  open 
ears,  such  greedy  attention,  as  if  every  word  would  be 
eaten  that  dropt  from  the  mouths  of  the  Ministers.  .  .  . 

About  the  beginning  of  these  Ministers  preaching,  espe- 
cially after  their  first  Fast  together,  the  Lord  begins  to 
remit,  and  turn  his  hand,  and  cause  some  abatement  of 
the  disease. 


Now  the  Citizens  who  had  dispers'd  themselves  abroad 
into  the  Countries,  because  of  the  Contagion,  think  of 
their  old  Houses  and  Trades,  and  begin  to  return,  though 
with  fearfulness  and  trembling,  lest  some  of  the  after  drops 
of  the  storm  should  fall  upon  them:  and  0  that  many  of 
them  had  not  brought  back  their  old  hearts  and  sins,  .  .  . 
Some   return   to   their   Houses    and   follow   their   worldly 

[122] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

business,  and  work  as  hard  as  they  can  to  fetch  np  the 
time  they  have  lost,  without  minding  and  labouring  to  im- 
prove by  the  Judgment,  and  God's  wonderful  preservation 
of  them,  .  .  . 


[123] 


APPENDIX  C 

From  Boghurst's  Loimographia 
1665,  pr.  1894.  " 

Almost  all  that  caught  this  Disease  with  feare  dyed 
with  Tokens  in  two  or  three  dayes. 

About  the  beginning  most  men  gott  the  disease  with 
fadling,  surfetting,  overheating  themselves,  and  disorderly 
living. 

Tokens  appeared  not  much  till  about  the  middle  of 
June,  and  carbuncles  not  till  the  latter  end  of  July,  but 
were  very  rife  in  the  Fall  about  September  and  October, 
and  seized  most  on  old  people,  adult,  choleriek,  and  melan- 
choly people,  and  generally  on  dry  and  leane  bo  dyes. 
Children  had  none. 

If  very  hott  weather  followed  a  shower  of  raine,  the 
disease  increased  much. 

If  in  the  heate  of  the  disease  the  winds  blew  very 
sharp  and  cold  people  dyed  very  quickly,  many  lying  sicke 
but  one  day. 


Shutting  up  of  houses,  wickedness,  confident,  ignorant 
mountebanks,  overhasty  cutting  and  burning  sores,  in- 
dulging too  much  to  present  ease,  removeing  servants  and 
poore  people  to  Pest-houses  and  to  other  houses  in  their 
sicknesse,  overstifling  and  weakening  people  with  too  much 
sweating,  overhasty  going  abroade  into  the  cold,  and  pre- 
posterous Physick  killed  many. 

Though  all  sorts  of  people  dyed  very  thicke,  both 
young  and  old,  rich  and  poore,  healthy  and  unhealthy, 
strong  and  weake,  men  and  women  of  all  constitutions,  of 
all  professions  and  places,  of  all  religions,  of  all  condi- 

[124] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

tions  good  and  bad,  yet  as  far  as  I  could  discerne  the  dif- 
ference of  the  two,  more  of  the  good  dyed  then  of  the  bad, 
more  men  then  women,  and  more  of  dulle  complexions 
then  of  f  aire. 

In  the  summer  before  the  Plague  in  1664  there  was 
such  a  multitude  of  flyes  that  they  lined  the  insides  of 
houses,  and  if  any  threads  or  stringes  did  hang  downe  in 
any  place,  it  was  presently  thicke  sett  with  flyes  like  a  rope 
of  onions,  and  swarms  of  Ants  covered  the  highways  that 
you  might  have  taken  up  a  handfull  at  a  tyme,  both  winged 
and  creeping  Ants;  and  such  a  multitude  of  croaking 
froggs  in  ditches  that  you  might  have  heard  them  before 
you  saw  them.  Also  the  same  summer  the  Small  Pox  was 
so  rife  in  our  Parish  [of  St.  Giles  in  the  Fields]  that 
betwixt  the  Church  and  the  Pound  in  St.  Giles,  which  is 
not  above  six  score  paces,  about  forty  family es  had  the 
Small  Pox.  jWii 

The  Plague  was  ushered  in  with  7  months  dry  weather 
and  westerly  windes. 

The  Plague  hath  put  itselfe  forth  in  St.  Giles's,  St. 
Clement's,  St.  Paul's,  Covent  Garden,  and  St.  Martin's 
this  3  or  4  yeares,  as  I  have  been  certainly  informed  by 
the  people  themselves  that  had  it  in  their  houses  in  these 
Parishes.  i 

The  Plague  first  fell  upon  the  highest  ground,  for  our 
Parish  is  the  highest  about  London,  and  the  best  aire,  yet 
was  first  infected.  Highgate,  Hampstead,  and  Acton  also 
all  shared  in  it. 

The  winds  blowing  westward  soe  long  together  from 
before  Christmas  until  July,  about  7  months,  was  the 
cause  the  Plague  began  first  at  the  West  end  of  the  City, 
as  at  St.  Giles's  and  St.  Martin's  Westminster.  Afterwards 
it  gradually  insinuated,  and  crept  downe  Holborne  and  the 
Strand,  and  then  into  the  City  and  at  last  to  the  East  end 
of  the  Suburbs;  soe  that  it  was  half  a  yeare  at  the  West 
end  of  the  City  before  the  East  end  and  Stepney  was  in- 

[125] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

fected,  which  was  about  the  middle  of  July.  Southwark 
being  the  South  suburb,  was  infected  almost  as  soon  as  the 
West  end. 

The  Disease  spread  not  altogether  by  contagion  at  first, 
nor  began  at  only  one  place,  and  spread  further  and 
further  as  an  eating  spreading  soare  doth  all  over  the  body, 
but  fell  upon  severall  places  of  this  City  and  Suburbs  like 
raine,  even  at  the  first  at  St.  Giles's,  St.  Martin's,  Chancery 
Lane,  Southwark,  Houndsditch,  and  some  places  within  the 
City,  as  at  Proctor's  House. 

This  year  in  which  the  Plague  hath  raged  soe  much, 
noe  alteration  or  change  appeared  in  any  element,  vegetable 
or  animall,  besides  the  body  of  man,  except  only  the  season 
of  the  yeare  and  the  windes,  the  spring  being  continuall 
dry  for  6  or  7  months  together,  there  being  noe  raine  at  all, 
but  a  little  sprinkling  Showre  or  two  about  the  latter  end 
of  Aprill,  which  caused  such  a  pitifull  crop  of  Hay  in  the 
spring.  Only  in  the  Autumne  there  was  a  pretty  good 
cropp,  but  all  other  things  kept  their  common  integrity, 
as  all  sorts  of  fruits,  as  Apples,  Peares,  Cherryes,  Plums, 
Mulberryes,  Raspes,  Strawberryes ;  all  roots  as  Parsnipps, 
Carrotts,  Turnips;  all  flowers,  all  medicinable  Simples,  etc., 
were  as  plentifull,  large,  faire,  and  wholesome;  all  graine 
as  plentifull  and  good;  all  kine,  Cattle,  Horses,  Sheepe, 
Swine,  Doggs,  wild  Beasts  and  tame,  as  healthfull,  strong 
to  labour,  wholesome  to  eate  as  ever  they  were  in  any  yeare. 
Though  many  pedling  writers  have  undertaken  to  find 
fault  with  all  these  things,  and  made  people  so  f earfull  and 
carefull  of  what  they  eate  or  dranke,  or  what  they  bought, 
of  keeping  Doggs,  of  eating  Mutton,  Pork,  Fish,  Fruitts, 
Rootes,  Salletts,  especially  cherryes,  were  much  exclaimed 
at,  and  cucumbers.  Yet  I  believe  very  few  people  eate  soe 
much  fruit  continually  as  I  did  this  yeare,  yet  was  not 
once  sicke  of  any  disease  all  the  yeare. 

I  commonly  drest  forty  soares  in  a  day,  held  their  pulse 
sweating  in  the  bed  half  a  quarter  of  an  hour  together  to 

[126] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

give  judgement  and  informe  myselfe  in  the  various  tricks 
of  [the  disease]  :  I  lett  one  blood,  gave  glisters,  though 
but  to  a  few,  held  them  up  in  their  bedds  to  keep  them 
from  strangling  and  choking  half  an  houre  together,  com- 
monly suffered  their  breathing  in  my  face  severall  tymes 
when  they  were  dying,  eate  and  dranke  with  them,  espe- 
cially those  that  had  soares;  sate  downe  by  their  bedd 
sides  and  upon  their  bedds  discoursing  with  them  an  houre 
together  if  I  had  tyme,  and  stayd  by  them  to  see  the  man- 
ner of  their  death,  and  closed  up  their  mouth  and  eyes 
(for  they  dyed  with  their  mouth  and  eyes  very  much  open 
and  stareing) ;  then  if  people  had  no  body  to  helpe  them 
(for  helpe  was  scarce  at  such  a  tyme  and  place)  I  helpt 
to  lay  them  forth  out  of  the  bedd  and  afterwards  into  the 
coffin,  and  last  of  all  accompanying  them  to  the  grave. 


[127] 


APPENDIX  D 

Fkom  Kemp's  Brief  Treatise 
1665. 

[The  Plague]  sometimes  begins  with  a  cold  shivering  like 
an  Ague,  sometimes  continues  with  a  mild  warmth  like  Hec- 
tick  Fever  or  a  Diary,  and  encreaseth  with  violent  heat  like 
Burning  Fever.  It  corrupteth  the  Blood  and  all  the  hu- 
mours, it  afflicteth  the  Head  with  pain,  the  Brain  with  gid- 
diness, the  Nerves  with  Convulsions,  the  Eyes  with  dimness, 
making  them  look  as  if  they  had  wept,  and  depriving  them 
of  their  lively  splendor,  it  makes  the  Countenance  look 
ghastly,  troubling  the  Ears  with  noise  and  deafness;  it  in- 
fecteth  the  Breath  with  stinking,  the  Voice  with  hoarseness, 
the  Throat  with  soreness,  the  Mouth  with  drought,  and  the 
Tongue  with  thirst;  the  Stomach  with  worms  and  want  of 
appetite,  with  hickhop,  nauseousness,  retching,  and  vomit- 
ing; the  Bowels  with  looseness  and  the  bloody  Flix,  the 
Sides  with  stitches,  the  Back  with  pains,  the  Lungs  with 
flegme,  the  Skin  with  fainty  and  stinking  Sweats,  Spots, 
Blains,  Botches,  Sores,  and  Carbuncles,  the  Pulse  with 
weakness,  the  Heart  with  sounding  and  f  aintness.  It  makes 
feeble  like  the  Palsie,  it  causes  sleepiness  like  the  Lethargy, 
watchfulness  and  madness  like  a  Phrensie,  and  sudden  death 
like  the  Apoplexy.  And  these  symptomes  happen  not  alike 
to  all. 

The  Turks  are  perswaded,  that  every  ones  fate  is  writ- 
ten in  his  fore-head,  and  hath  a  fatal  destiny  appointed  by 
God  .  .  . ;  by  which  credulity,  they  slight  and  neglect  all  care 
of  avoiding  the  infection,  conversing  with  one  another,  and 
buying  the  goods  out  of  infected  houses,  and  wearing  the 
apparel  of  them  that  lately  died.  .  .  .  Multitudes  have  been 
executed  by  the  Plague  for  this  Heresie.  .  .  . 

[128] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

When  the  Plague  begins  to  reign  in  any  Place  .  .  .,  the 
Counsel  of  Hypocrates  in  advising  to  change  and  flye  the 
corrupted  air,  is,  and  hath  been  received  as  an  Oracle,  .  .  . 
The  Antidote  made  of  three  Adverbs,  Cito,  Longe,  Tarde, 
Flie  quickly,  Go  far,  and  Return  slowly,  hath  oft-times 
proved  effectual. 

And  if  any  of  those  that  will  strain  at  a  Gnat,  and 
swallow  a  Camel,  should  pretend  any  scruple  of  Conscience 
about  the  lawfulness  of  this  Remedy,  in  flying  from  In- 
fected Places,  and  say,  out  of  envy,  at  the  accommodation 
of  others,  or  discontent  that  they  are  not  so  well  provided 
themselves,  or  some  secret  design  (as  I  have  heard  several 
express  it)  The  Lord  can  follow  and  find  them  out;  they 
may  also  understand,  that  it  is  not  their  desire  to  flie  from 
his  presence,  but  his  Plague,  not  from  their  gracious  God, 
but  from  his  punishing  and  fearful  rod.  .  .  .  But  I  shall 
leave  these  people  as  diseased  in  the  Pate.  .  . . 

But  now  if  through  Poverty  and  lack  of  means  to 
maintain  you,  and  want  of  friends  to  receive  and  entertain 
you  in  better  air,  or  having  such  Callings,  from  the  attend- 
ance whereon,  you  cannot  with  honesty  and  good  conscience 
absent  yourself,  but  are  enforced  still  to  stay  .  .  .,  you  must 
then  strengthen  your  Bodies  against  the  Causes  of  the 
Sichnesse. 


[129] 


APPENDIX  E 

From  Golgotha,  or  a  Looking-Glass  for  London,  1665. 

Let  me  suppose  the  case  therefore  to  their  [i.  e.  the  Col- 
lege of  Physicians']  consciences: 

Whether,  if  four  or  five,  or  more  of  the  skillfulest  and 
hardiest  of  themselves,  who  have  given  this  advice  [to  shut 
up  infected  houses]  as  Orthodox,  against  so  many  thousand 
poor  Innocents,  were  to  be  coobed  up  in  one  of  the  poor 
houses,  whereout  but  one  dyed,  and  with  them  an  old 
woman,  or  some  ignorant  creature  (a  stranger  to  them  as  is 
usual)  for  their  Nurse,  and  a  sturdy  fellow  without  with  an 
Halberd  (or  some  stricter  Watch,  as  they  have  advised  for 
others)  to  have  each  of  them  no  more  than  the  Parish  al- 
lows ;  and  the  Searchers,  Chyrurgeons,  &c.  they  have  allowed 
to  visit  others,  to  visit  them:  if  in  a  month  or  forty  dayes 
after  the  last  man  of  them  dies,  at  such  a  season,  so  used, 
they  do  not  think  in  their  own  consciences,  with  all  their 
skill,  their  carcasses  would  all  or  most  of  them  be  carried 
away  in  the  Night-Cart;  which  now  (for  fear  thereof)  are, 
many  of  them,  got  into  their  Country-Gardens,  after  their 
Epistolary  Vapour  and  Cruel  Direction  aforesaid?  How 
then  may  poor  Women  with  child,  Widows,  helpless,  friend- 
less, Fatherless,  and  sucklings,  exposed  (without  such  help, 
as  many  have  been)  and  half  dead  before,  it  may  be  by  the 
sudden  death  of  their  first  dead  visited  relation,  escape  the 
ruin  of  such  further  violence  upon  them? 

Again,  I  query;  If  one  in  the  Parish-Meeting-place 
fall  suddenly  sick  or  dye,  after  sitting  there  in  the  crowd 
two  or  three  hours  amongst  the  multitude;  were  it  not  as 
equal  the  doors  should,  be  shut  upon  the  Assembly,  or  they 
in  their  several  Houses  shut  up,  as  that  some  Families  (who 
were  further  off  from  the  single  sick  person  that  dyed 
therein)  should  be  presently  so  violently  used  and  exposed? 
0  surely,  if  we  would  not  be  so  done  unto,  these  wayes  then 

[130] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

are  unequal,  and  this  violent  course  not  like  to  abate  our 
Plagues,  but  is  rather  a  sign  and  earnest  of  further  Wrath : 
And  God  (by  leaving  the  Nation  to  be  in  love  with  such 
unnatural  Advice)  is,  it's  to  be  feared,  paving  a  way  for  his 
Anger,  in  that  more  general  shutting-up  as  a  just  Judgment 
on  many  accounts,  prophesied  of  such  a  provoking  City, 
Isa.  24,  10,  11,  12.  The  City  of  confusion  is  broken  down, 
every  house  is  shut  up,  &e. 

3dly.  It's  full  of  evil  effects,  to  the  encrease  of 
Plagues,  and  that  not  only  as  it  provokes  God  as  aforesaid, 
but  naturally  distracts  men,  filling  them  with  horror  of 
heart,  but  those  that  are  shut-up,  and  those  that  live  daily 
in  the  fear  thereof;  Most  that  are  shut-up  being  surprized, 
unprovided,  unsettled  in  house  and  heart,  needing  then  most 
the  use  of  a  sure  friend,  made  for  the  day  of  adversity.  Pro. 
17.  17.  An  Interpreter  as  Elihu  speaks,  Job  33.  23.  one  of 
a  thousand  &c.  and  are  under  soul-sinkings,  and  none  to 
succour  them ;  their  hearts  die  within  them,  as  Nabals,  upon 
this  bad  news;  not  a  friend  to  come  nigh  them  in  their 
many,  many,  heart  and  house  cares  and  perplexities,  com- 
pelled (though  well)  to  lie  by,  or  upon  the  death-bed  (per- 
haps) of  their  dear  relation,  drag'd  away  before  their  eyes, 
affrighted  children  howling  by  their  side,  fitted  by  fainting 
affliction  to  receive  the  impression  of  a  thousand  fearful 
thoughts  of  the  long  night  they  have  to  reckon  before  re- 
lease, after  the  last  of  the  Family,  so  dismally  exposed, 
shall  sink  by  degrees,  one  after  another,  in  the  den  of  this 
dismal  likeness  to  Hell,  contrived  by  the  Advice  of  the 
English-College  of  Doctors:  no  drop  of  water  (perhaps) 
but  what  comes  at  the  leisure  of  a  drunken  or  careless  Hal- 
berd-bearer at  the  door:  no  seasonable  administration  being 
as  a  certainty  then  for  their  support,  and  innumerable  evils 
of  this  sort  incident  thereunto:  whereof  if  the  ear  of  any 
concerned  were  opened  to  the  cry  of  the  Poor  herein,  I 
could  (upon  knowledge)  instance  and  give  plentiful  proof 
of  one  months  misery  and  ruine  already  hereby  upon  many, 

[131] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

enough  to  make  the  ears  of  every  one  that  heareth  tingle; 
and  lay  the  blood  of  Innocents  at  the  door  of  the  Devisers 
and  Prosecutors  of  this  Barbarism;  who  also  hereby  bring 
no  small  consternation  hourly  upon  the  minds  of  those  who 
are  at  liberty  thoughtful  (to  terror)  whose  turn  may  be  next 
to  fall  out  of  the  oversight  of  their  nearest  Friends,  into  the 
hands  of  the  Halberd,  Searchers,  and  Chyrugion,  all 
strangers  to  them,  so  as  it  may  be  plague  enough  to  be 
haunted  with,  under  such  distraction  and  affliction.  Hence 
(I  say)  are  a  thousand  thoughts  created,  to  such,  swoond- 
ings,  faintings,  fears,  (fitting  for  infection  naturally)  as 
have  occasioned  some  already  to  lose  their  precious  lives, 
and  many  have  hardly  escaped  the  effect  thereof ;  who  other- 
wise would  not  so  dread  the  Visitation,  that  yet  sink  down 
and  shiver  now  through  fear  hereof,  but  upon  the  sudden 
sight  of  a  House  shut-up,  and  clusters  of  little  Children 
and  tender  ones  in  their  windows,  who  might  more  ration- 
ally continue  well  by  separation  as  they  are  able,  or  might 
be  advised  by  a  more  charitable  care  of  them,  than  by  such 
miserable,  noisome,  melancholy,  close  imprisonment,  which 
exposeth  the  Well  (shut-up)  daily  to  destruction,  and  also 
doth  really  but  prepare  a  more  unquenchable  stench,  and 
fest  to  wreak  out  of  the  windows  (whilst  so  shut  up)  and 
disperse  it  self  into  the  City  by  a  more  violent  concourse 
to  them  at  the  window  (though  less  to  their  relief)  and  by 
opening  the  doors  (upon  such  choaking-up)  for  the 
Searchers  and  Bearers  of  the  Dead  (so  daily  more  prepared 
for  them)  and  other  allowed  Visitors,  whose  walks  are  far 
more  perilous  than  twenty  times  so  many  left  open  to  keep 
themselves  clean  and  distant  from  the  Sick  and  Dead,  as 
else  they  would,  to  prevent  their  own  infection. 

Yea,  after  the  House  is  allowed  to  be  open,  and  all  that 
are  left  alive  are  well  after  this  usage,  both  they  and  it  are 
far  more  Dangerous  hereby  to  others,  than  before,  they 
were  crowded  up  so  long  to  such  a  nasty  and  infecting  sta- 
tion, being  the  natural  and  artificial  way  also  hermetically  to 
effect  the  most  forceable  and  noisome  putrifactions,  when 
the  Embrio  shal  be  unsealed;  common  experience  having 

[132] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

proved  it  naturally  less  perilous  to  go  to  twenty  visited  kept 
sweet  and  clean,  than  to  two  so  noisomly  exposed. 

To  which  I  may  add,  that  many  for  fear  thereof  do 
hide  their  Sores,  and,  (after  a  Sweat  or  two)  their  Sick- 
ness also,  and  go  daily  about  their  business  so  long  as  they 
can  stand,  mingled  to  much  more  danger  every  way:  Nor 
dare  any  do  the  office  of  a  Nurse  or  Friend  to  those  shut-up 
(however  necessary  for  the  present  distress)  till  help  can  be 
procured  (whereby  some  have  been  neglected)  because  it  is 
so  penal,  that  they  must  be  inclosed  then  themselves,  how  in- 
consistent soever  to  their  charge  and  business,  by  which 
there  comes  no  small  inconveniency  to  the  Sick,  who  are 
forced  to  take  any  ignorant  Nurse  (or  worse)  in  haste,  to 
their  great  hazard. 

But  lastly,  I  appeal  to  the  experience  of  this  and 
other  parts;  how  apparently  did  the  hand  of  the  Lord  rest 
(as  the  antient  Citizens  familiarly  do  observe)  in  the 
former  great  Plagues  upon  this  City,  when  the  people  were 
wearied  out  of  this  oppression,  under  cause  enough  to 
mourn  unto  this  day,  over  the  cruelty  every  mercinary  had 
opportunity  to  commit  (as  now)  under  colour  hereof. 


[133] 


APPENDIX  F 

From  The  Shutting  up  Infected  Houses  as  it  is  practised 
in  England  Soberly  Debated.    By  way  of  Address  from 
the  poor  souls  that  are  Visited  to  their  Breth- 
ren that  are  Free.    1665. 

We  [who  are  shut  up]  are  acted  by  a  Principle  of  self 
preservation,  as  well  as  you  [who  are  fled  and  are  free] ,  and 
therefore  as  soon  as  we  find  ourselves  or  any  member  of  our 
Families  infected,  so  dradful  is  it  to  us  to  be  shut  up  from 
all  comfort  and  society,  from  free  and  wholsome  air,  from 
the  care  of  the  Physician,  and  the  Divine,  from  the  over- 
sight of  Friends  and  Relations,  and  sometimes  even  from 
the  very  necessities,  and  conveniences  of  Nature,  that  we  run 
as  far  in  City  and  Country  as  our  feet  can  carry  us,  leaving 
Wives  and  Children  to  the  Parishes,  empty  walls,  and  shops 
to  Creditors,  scattering  the  infection  along  the  streets  as  we 
go,  and  shifting  it  from  Lodging  to  Lodging  with  ourselves, 
till  at  last  we  drop  in  some  Alley,  Field,  or  neighbour  Vil- 
lage, calling  the  people  round  about  by  the  suddenness  of 
our  fall  to  stand  awhile  astonished  at  our  deaths,  and  then 
take  their  own;  each  fearful  man  of  us  frighted  from  his 
own  house,  killing  his  whole  Town  by  surprising  them  un- 
prepared; whereas  were  we  permitted  to  enjoy  the  content 
and  freedom  of  our  Habitations,  we  might  by  Antidotes, 
cure  others,  and  be  cured  ourselves. 

See,  see,  we  infect  not  our  next  Neighbours,  and  this 
sickness  spreads  not  much  in  any  one  place,  but  we  carry  it 
from  place  to  place,  running  from  our  home  as  from  our 
places  of  torment,  and  thus  the  Roads  are  visited,  and  men 
travel  the  same  way  to  the  Country,  and  to  their  long  home : 
Thus  the  Contagion  hath  reached  most  places  round  the 
Citty,  which  is  now  as  it  were  beseiged  with  the  judgment, 
and  encompassed  with  the  Visitation  and  desolation:  We 
have  not  learned  how  to  manage  a  sickness,  in  all  likelihood 

[134] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

did  persons  prepare  themselves  (upon  the  first  breaking  out 
of  the  Plague)  with  Antidotes  to  visit  the  sick,  who  would 
be  very  well  contented  to  keep  within  doors,  and  converse 
only  with  their  nearest  Friends,  (their  Physicians  and  the 
ghostly  fathers)  and  administer  to  them  such  preservatives, 
and  other  necessaries  the  Plague  might  go  no  further. 

This  shutting  up  would  breed  a  Plague  if  there  were 
none :  Infection  may  have  killed  its  thousands,  but  shutting 
up  hath  killed  its  ten  thousands.  Little  is  it  considered  how 
careless  most  Nurses  are  in  attending  the  Visited,  and  how 
careless  (being  possessed  with  rooking  avarice)  they  are  to 
watch  their  opportunity  to  ransack  their  houses;  the  as- 
sured absence  of  friends  making  the  sick  desperate  on  the 
one  hand,  and  them  on  the  other  unfaithful :  their  estates 
are  the  Plague  most  dye  on,  if  they  have  anything  to  lose,  to 
be  sure  those  are  sad  creatures  (for  the  Nurses  in  such  cases 
are  the  off-scouring  of  the  City)  have  a  dose  to  give  them; 
besides  that,  it  is  something  beyond  a  Plague  to  an  ingenious 
spirit  to  be  in  the  hands  of  those  dirty,  ugly,  and  unwhol- 
some  Haggs;  even  a  hell  it  self,  on  the  one  hand  to  hear 
nothing  but  screetches,  cryes,  groans,  and  on  the  other  hand 
to  see  nothing  but  ugliness  and  deformity,  black  as  night, 
and  dark  as  Melancholy:  Ah!  to  lye  at  the  mercy  of  a 
strange  woman  is  sad:  to  leave  wife,  children,  plate,  jewels, 
to  the  ingenuity  of  poverty  is  worse;  but  who  can  express 
the  misery  of  being  exposed  to  their  rapine  that  having 
nothing  of  the  woman  left  but  shape? 

■  •■■••• 

For  another  Argument  [against  shutting  up]  I  alledge 
the  mischief  and  sad  consequence  that  may  arise  from  the 
high  fits  of  Frenzy,  that  usually  attend  this  and  all  other  the 
like  Distempers;  wherein  the  sick  (if  not  restrained  by  main 
force  of  their  Attendants)  are  ready  to  commit  any  vio- 
lence, either  upon  themselve  or  other,  whether  Wife,  Mother, 
or  Child.  A  sad  instance  whereof  we  had  this  last  week  in 
Fleet  Lane,  where  the  Man  of  the  House  being  sick,  and 
having  a  great  Swelling,  but  not  without  hope  of  being  al- 

[135] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

most  ripe  for  breaking,  did  in  a  strong  fit  rise  out  of  his  bed, 
in  spite  of  all  that  his  Wife  (who  attended  him)  could  do  to 
the  contrary,  got  his  Knife,  and  therewith  most  miserably 
cut  his  Wife,  and  had  killed  her,  had  she  not  wrapped  up 
the  sheet  about  her,  and  therewith  saved  her  self,  till  by 
crying  out  Murther,  a  Neighbour  (who  was  himself  shut 
up)  opened  his  own  doors,  and  forced  into  the  house,  and 
came  seasonably  to  her  preservation.  The  man  is  since 
dead,  when  in  all  likelihood  (had  he  not  by  arising  struck  in 
the  disease)  he  might  have  recovered. 

Add  to  this  a  serious  consideration  of  the  sad  condition 
of  Women  neer  the  time  of  their  Travel,  (or  newly  de- 
livered) having  neither  Midwife  to  help  them,  nor  Nurse  to 
attend  them,  nor  Necessaries  provided  for  them,  nor  any 
friends  to  comfort  them ;  and  in  this  condition  have  contin- 
ually for  their  object  their  own  poor  innocent  Babes  newly 
brought  into  the  World,  either  to  be  starved  for  want  of  sus- 
tenance, or  poysoned  by  the  Breasts  that  should  preserve 
them. 


[136] 


APPENDIX   G 

Prom  Thucydides'  account  of  the  Plague  in  Athens, 

430  B.  C. 

The  season  was  admitted  to  be  remarkably  free  from 
ordinary  sickness;  and  if  anybody  was  already  ill  of  any 
other  disease,  it  was  absorbed  in  this.  Many  who  were  in 
perfect  health,  all  in  a  moment,  and  without  any  apparent 
reason,  were  seized  with  violent  heats  in  the  head  and  with 
redness  and  inflamation  of  the  eyes.  Internally  the  throat 
and  the  tongue  were  quickly  suffused  with  blood,  and  the 
breath  became  unnatural  and  fetid.  There  followed  sneezing 
and  hoarseness;  in  a  short  time  the  disorder,  accompanied 
with  a  violent  cough,  reached  the  chest ;  then  fastening  lower 
down,  it  would  move  the  stomach  and  bring  on  all  the  vomits 
of  bile  to  which  physicians  have  ever  given  names ;  and  they 
were  very  distressing.  An  ineffectual  retching  producing 
violent  convulsions  attacked  most  of  the  sufferers;  some  as 
soon  as  the  previous  symptoms  had  abated,  others  not  until 
long  afterwards.  The  body  externally  was  not  so  very  hot 
to  the  touch,  nor  yet  pale;  it  was  of  a  livid  colour  inclining 
to  red,  and  breaking  out  in  pustules  and  ulcers.  But  the 
internal  fever  was  intense;  the  sufferers  could  not  bear  to 
have  on  them  even  the  finest  linen  garment ;  they  insisted  on 
being  naked,  and  there  was  nothing  which  they  longed  for 
more  eagerly  than  to  throw  themselves  into  cold  water.  .  .  . 
They  could  not  sleep;  a  restlessness  which  was  intolerable 
never  left  them.  .  .  .  Some  escaped  .  .  .  [but]  had  no  sooner 
recovered  than  they  were  seized  with  a  forgetfulness  of  all 
things  and  knew  neither  themselves  nor  their  friends.  .  .  . 
Most  appalling  was  the  despondency  which  seized  upon  any 
one  who  felt  himself  sickening;  for  he  instantly  abandoned 
his  mind  to  despair  and,  instead  of  holding  out,  absolutely 

[137] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

threw  away  his  chance  of  life.  Appalling  too  was  the 
rapidity  with  which  they  caught  the  infection;  dying  like 
sheep  if  they  attended  on  one  another;  and  this  was  the 
principal  cause  of  mortality. 


[138] 


APPENDIX  H. 

From  Harleian  MSS.  3,784  and  3,785 

Humphrey  Henchman,  Bishop  of  London,  to  Dr.  William 
Sancroft,  Dean  of  St.  Paul's. 

The  collection  is  to  be  for  reliefe  of  persons  and  places 
visited  with  the  sickness,  the  money  to  be  gathered  is  to 
be  sent  in  to  the  L.  Maior  for  that  vse:  let  the  collection 
at  St:  Pauls  be  as  it  hath  vsed  to  be  vpon  such  occasions. 
J  haue  sent  to  my  Register  to  disperse  the  Books,  and  to 
giue  notice  to  the  Ministers  to  exhort  the  people  to  this 
charity.  J  shall  be  at  White  Hall  on  Tuesday.  I  haue  also 
written  to  mr-  Gifford  to  make  such  exhortation.  J  rest 
Your  very  affectionate  Brother 

H.  LONDON. 
June  17  [1665] 
To  Reverend  Doctor 
Sancroft  Deane  of 
St.  Pauls 

London. 

George  Davenport  to  Dean  Sancroft. 

Aukland  Castle,  Jul.  1,  1665. 
J  am  very  sorry  to  hear  ye  sad  relation  you  make 
about  the  Pestilence.     Wee  are  in  great  fear,  it  will  be 
brought  from  London  to  Newcastle. 

Francis  Wilson  to  Dean  Sancroft. 

Corp.  Xti  Coll  Camb. 
July  5,  [1665]. 

S' 

We  are  now  in  that  Condition  here  in  Cambridge  by  meanes 
of  this  2d  Visitation   (wch  is  very  sharp)   y*  we  must  of 

[139] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

necessity  begg.  J  haue  to  this  purpose  made  bold  to  in- 
close a  letter  to  my  Ld  of  London,  not  knowing  how  to 
direct  it  in  case  he  should  be  at  Fulham,  but  desiring  it  may 
be  speedily  wth-  him,  which  J  doubt  not  to  be  effect  [ed]  by 
yr  meanes.  J  know  you  will  be  ready  to  promote  soe 
charitable  a  worke, 

Yr  most  affectionate  Serv* 
FRA:  WILSON 
To  the  Reverend  &  his  honred  friend 
Dr  Sancroft  Dean  of  S*  Pauls 

London 
near  S*  Pauls 
In  his  absence  to  be  conveyed  to 
the  Right  Reverend  father  in 
gd  the  Bp  of  London. 

Bishop  Henchman  to  Dean  Sancroft. 
Mr-  Deane  [Undated] 

His  Matie-  hath  declared  his  pleasure  that  a  solemn  Hu- 
miliation shall  be  observed  throughout  the  Kingdome:  and 
hath  commaunded  my  Lord  of  Canterburie  that  a  Litourgie 
be  forthwith  prepared  for  that  vse:  whereupon  his  Grace 
requires  you  and  me  to  consider  of  a  Forme:  which  may 
soone  be  done  for  there  hath  been  frequent  occasions  of 
that  kind  of  Service:  and  there  is  no  further  labour  for  vs 
but  to  frame  some  Collects,  all  other  parts  may  be  vsed 
with  little  or  no  alterations.  Jf  you  haue  ready  at  hand 
any  former  Services  be  pleased  to  bring  them  with  you  here 
you  shall  find  that  of  1625.  1636.  and  1640.  Jf  you  can 
be  here  to  morrow  before  dinner  we  shall  finish  the  work 
before  you  goe  away.    The  Lord  preserve  you. 

Your  very  affectionate 
Fulham:  prsh.  Brother 

S*1-  Petri  HUMFR:  LONDON 

For  Reuerend  Dr-  Sancroft 
Deane  of  S*-  Pauls  in  Angell 
Court  neare  S*-  Gregories  Church. 

[140] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

Stephen  Bing  to  Dean  Bancroft. 

[London],  24  July,  1665. 
Reverend  Sr- 

Mr-  Iuett,  Price  Fisher  Warner  are  out  of  Town  &  mr- 
Webb  allmost,  for  he  is  not  so  often  wth  us  as  I  wish  he 
were.  Mr-  Sub  Deane,  Masters  Clifford  &  Quaterman  whoe 
only  speake  of  going  out  of  Towne  are  dilligent  &  all  so  3 
of  the  Vicars  Mr-  Cockrey,  Simpson,  &  Morrice  th'others 
are  out  of  the  City.  I  intend  God  willing  to  keep  close 
to  his  WorP-  in  the  Church  except  great  hazard  should  be- 
fall mee.  Dr-  Barwick  .  .  .  resolues  his  continuance  here, 
for  any  thing  he  knowes.  The  Lord  in  mercy  look  upon 
us:  its  said  there  willbe  a  great  increase  this  week  of  the 
last  bill  wch  was  1089.  its  more  in  S*-  Gregories  then  at 
your  departure.  &  in  an  Alley  in  Pater  Noster  Rowe  &  a 
man  &  his  wife  fallen  sick  in  the  Petti  Canons  what  the 
issue  of  it  will  be  Thursday  next  will  more  informe  you- 
.  .  .  Wee  haue  the  Prayer  &  Service  performed  [3  times 
a  day]  as  you  ordered  &  that  in  time  &  with  a  reverentiall 
decency  &  a  comely  congregacon  considering  the  times  fre- 
quenting those  solemnities.   .    .    . 

Honed  Sr-  Your  most  Faithfull  Servant. 

STEPHEN    BING. 

Same  to  same. 

27th  July,  1665 
S^ 

People  frequent  ye  Church  as  before  excepting  on  Sundays 
and  ye  last  Holyday  on  wch  wee  had  a  Sermon  &  shall 
haue  another  on  the  Fast  Day:  The  increase  of  Gods 
Judgmt:  deads  peoples  hearts  that  trading  strangely  ceas- 
eth  &  bills  of  Exchange  are  not  accepted  so  y*  they  shutt  up 
their  shopps  &  such  a  feare  possesseth  them  as  its  wonder- 
full  to  see  how  they  hurry  into  the  Country  as  though  ye 
same  God  were  not  there  y*  is  in  ye  City  so  that  those 
that  are  living  and  liued  in  ye  great  sickness  time  saw, 

[141] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

nor  knew  not  ye  like  when  there  dyed  4000  a  week.  I 
pray  God  to  prvent  a  sad  Sequel.  Great  complaint  there 
is  of  necessity  &  needs  must  it  be  ye  more  when  ye  rich 
hast  away  y*  should  supply  ye  pores  want.  I  haue  been 
since  the  writing  of  my  last  lr:  in  sevrall  places,  being  in- 
formed of  some  y*  were  shut  up  to  be  in  a  very  necessitous 
condicon  to  see  if  it  were  so  or  no,  &  so  finding  them  I  haue 
been  bold  to  extend  yor  charity  to  ye  outrunning  ye  bank 
you  honed  me  with.  .  .  . 

Your  WorPs  most  humble 
&  faithfull  Servant 
STEPHEN  BING 

Dr.  Peter  Barwick  to  Dean  Sancroft. 

Lond.  Aug.  3,  1665. 
Mr-  Dean 

Wee  haue  noe  neighbours  left  in  ye  court  [off  Ave  Marie 
Lane]  besides  a  Goldsmith  of  my  own  trade,  but  Mr- 
Fleetham  locks  up  ye  Avennues  every  night.  We  haue 
several  houses  infected  in  the  Parish,  and  one  of  yor- 
own  out  of  wch-  Mrs-  gallson  and  one  other  are  dead  but 
God  be  thanked  there  is  noe  fresh  house  infected  within  ye- 
Parish  these  10  days  that  I  know  of .  .   .   . 

Sr-  yor-  humble  servant 

PE:    BARWICK 

These 
To  ye  Reverend  Dr-  William 
Sancroft  Dean  of  S*-  Pauls 
at  ye  Rose  and  Crown 

at  TUNBRIDGE 

Post  pd 

Rev  Stephen  Bing  to  Dean  Sancroft. 

3  August  1665. 

Reverend  &  right  Wor11- 

[142] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

There  are  now  but  3  Petti  Canons  left  viz*-  my 
selfe  Mr-  Clifford  &  Masters  wth  2  Vicars  Mr-  Simpson  & 
Morrice,  the  rest  are  out  of  Towne:  Mr-  Portington  lies 
at  the  poinet  of  death  whose  turne  being  to  officiat  this 
week  J  supply  for  none  els  would  doe  it  except  they  were 
payd  for  it:  Little  mercy  the  Lord  be  mercifull  to  us;  J 
wish  it  were  as  formerly  wch  was  not  so  in  such  case  of 
necessity.   .    .    . 

Your   WorPs-   most   humble  &   affectionate    Serv*- 

STEPHEN  BINGE 
Its  sd-  that  my  L.  Bp-  of  London  hath  sent  to  those  Pastors 
that  haue  quitted  their  flocks  by  reason  of  these  times  y*- 
if  they  returne  not  speedily  others  will  be  put  into  their 
places. 

Br.  Barwick  to  Bean  Saneroft. 

Lond.  Aug.  5,  1665. 
Mr-  Dean 

Give  me  leaue  to  discharge  the  part  of  a  frend  and  to 
tell  you  what  J  haue  thought  perhaps  of  noe  great  moment. 
Jt  will  be  noe  news  to  tell  you  (for  you  will  easily  imagin 
it)  that  ye  mouths  of  a  slanderous  generation  are  wide 
enough  open  against  those  that  are  with  drawn  both  of  yor- 
profession  and  ours;  but  one  of  my  neighbours  told  me 
(who  J  indeed  think  wishes  well  both  to  you  and  to  ye 
Church)  that  it  was  wondered  that  you  would  goe,  and  not 
leaue  any  thing  that  they  had  heard  of  behind  you  for  ye 
poor  neighbours.  J  tould  him  that  in  what  Cases  it  was 
lawfull  to  goe  was  not  in  the  skill  of  every  one  to  deter- 
mine ;  but  as  for  yor-  goeing  to  ye  Wells  you  had  resolved  it, 
and  by  my  advice,  long  before  any  plague  was  heard  of,  and 
as  for  yor-  charity  to  ye  poor  J  knew  you  had  given  a  Con- 
siderable summe  (to  a  Parish  that  a  little  money  would 
not  releeve)   before  you  went.  .    .    . 

Stephen  Bing  to  Bean  Saneroft. 

7*h-  August:  1665 
Reverend  &  right  Wor11: 

[143] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

God  hath  been  pleased  now  to  encompas  us  wth  his 
pestelentiall  hand,  in  3  places  in  Carter  Lane,  in  Sermon 
Lane  wch-  is  next  my  house,  in  ye  Lane  at  ye  end  of 
Knightriders  street  wch-  Leadeth  up  to  yor  Cort->  in  Ave 
Mary  Lane  in  the  Buildings  where  ye  Bp-  of  London: 
howse  was  &  in  an  Alley  in  Paternoster  row  &  on  the  back- 
side in  ye  Shambles  wth  severall  besides  in  Christ  Church 
parish  in  S*-  Bennets  Pauls  Wharfe  where  its  said  died  3 
ye  last  night  &  5  was  buryed  then  out  of  S*-  Gregories  & 
others  died;  its  sd-  likewise  to  be  in  S*-  Andrews  in  ye 
Wardrop :  yet  nevertheles  under  ye  shadow  of  ye  Almighty 
shall  be  my'  refuge  until  this  calamity  be  overpast.  .  .  . 
Your  most  humble  &   affectionat   Serv*- 

STEPHEN  BING 

These 

To  ye  Reverend  &  right  Wor11- 
Willm-  Sancroft  Doctor  of  Divinity, 
Deane  of  ye  Cathedrall  Church  of 
S*-  Paul  London. 

Present. 
To  be  left  at  ye 
Rose  &  Crowne  in 
Tunbridge. 

Same  to  same. 

10  August  1665. 
Reverend  &  right  Wor11- 

I  haue  sent  you  ye  Thursdays  Intelligence,  half  of  wch 
was  in  th'other  sent  on  Munday  wch-  I  hope  is  receaued 
.  .  . ;  likewise  ye  weekly  Bill  wch-  is  very  sad;  and  ye 
more  sad  are  our  times  y*  neither  calme  nor  storme  will 
abate  ye  fury  of  monstrous  spirits  whoe  in  ye  face  of  a 
Congregacon  as  at  Pauls  th'other  day,  will  say  these 
calamities  are  caused  by  ye  Government  in  Church  &  State. 
The  sicknes  is  break  out  in  2  places  more  since  Munday  in 
S*-  Gregories  one  dwelling  opening  into  yor  yard  & 
th'other  at  ye  left  corner  of  ye  Entry  of  our  going  into 

[144] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

y6  Church;  Its  in  Cambridg  also  of  wch  I  forgot  to  tell 
you-  and  whereas  I  told  of  2  sick  in  ye  Petti  Canons,  Its 
sd-  the  Husband  died  of  a  Consumpcon  but  ye  wife  lies 
sick  of  a  pi:  so  as  for  other  places  infected  in  ye  Parish 
I  informed  in  my  last.  .   .  . 

Your  most  humble  &  faithfull   Serv*- 

STE.  BING 
Dr-  Barwick  ye  constant  frequenter  of  our  Church  some- 
times 3  times  in  a  day  remembers  his  service  to  yor-  worP- 

J.  Tillison  to  Dean  Sancroft. 

London  August  ye  10th-  1665 
Reuend  Sr 

J  have  not  heard  from  Dr  Pory  since  he  left  London 
nor  do  I  know  how  to  send  to  him  though  his  mayd  once 
took  a  resolution  to  abide  by  it;  yet  it  seemes  she  is  fled. 
...  I  doubt  yor  wood  will  hardly  be  brought  to  London 
this  somer  for  I  doubt  it  impossible  to  gett  a  Boat  to  fetch 
it;  yet  I  haue  made  it  my  businesse  2  days  together  to  hire 
Lighters  &  can  not  gett  any  except  one  y*  will  not  fetch  it 
vnder  2s  y6  Load  heretofore  ye  Church  gaue  but  14d  ye 
Load.  .   .   . 

Reuend  Sr 

Yor  faithfull  humble  S* 

JO:    TILLISON 

Same  to  dame. 

August  ye  15** :  1665 
Reverend  Sr 

J  hope  yu  will  not  take  my  simple  well  meaning  amiss 
nor  take  it  ill  if  J  put  yu  in  minde  of  our  own  Pish  where 
there  is  all  this  tyme  16  or  17  houses  vissitted,  a  great 
many  of  them  poore  &  in  want,  &  yl  some  of  ye  Pishonrs 
as  J  am  informed  (j  beg  yo^  Pdon  for  my  good  will)  doe 
alittle  grumble  y*  yo*  left  nothing  for  ye  poore  when  yu 

[145] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

went  away.  I  Pceive  since  this,  that  mr  Bing  had  ye  dis- 
posing of  some  of  yor  charity  &  J  do  not  doubt  but  y* 
he  will  give  yu  an  account  of  it.  nor  do  J  think  it  is  yor 
will  y*  any  Ptiallity  should  be  vsed  in  this  case,  it  is  very 
Pobable  y*  some  neighbouring  Pishes  may  stand  in  need, 
but  J  am  sure  y*  ye  miserable  condicon  of  S*  Giles'es 
Criplegate  which  is  one  of  yor  peculiars,  is  more  to  be 
pittied  then  any  Pish  in  or  about  London  where  all  have 
liberty  least  the  sick  &  poore  should  be  famished  within 
dores  the  Pish  not  being  able  to  relieue  their  necessities. 
J  had,  not  long  since  such  a  su[me]  as  yors  to  distribute, 
&  where  J  knew  not  ye  necessity  of  ye  poore  J  pd  a  su[me] 
to  ye  Churchwardens  &  they  to  ye  overseers  of  ye  poore 
soe  y*  J  had  an  account  brought  to  how  many  Psons  in 
each  Pish  it  was  distributed,  but  this  is  no  rule  for  you: 
Yor  neighbour  &  Tenn*  ffleetham  has  his  health  god  be 
thanked  very  well,  &  though  his  mayd  was  reported  to  be 
dead  with  his  child  she  is  recoued  &  all  ye  family  well.  Dr 
Barwick  is  very  carefull  of  him  &  his  family  &  of  keeping 
ye  gates  duly  lockt  vp.  I  was  lately  att  ffullham  &  my  Ld 
[Bishop  of  London]  comanded  me  to  let  yu  know  y* 
himselfe  &  family  are  all  in  good  health.  ...  J  am  not 
certain  whether  J  shall  remoue  from  this  place  or  no.  .  .  . 
J  smoke  yor  house  twice  a  week,  Tuesdayes  &  frydayes.  .  .  . 
Yor  obedient  humble  Srt 

J.    TILLISON 

Same  to  same 

London  August  ye  23th  1665 
Reverend  Sr 

Yors  of  Satterday  last  from  Ewell,  J  have  reed.  And  as 
far  as  in  me  lyes  have  observed  &  done  yor  comands.  J 
have  payd  4011  to  Mr  Daniell  Keilway  [Kelloway?],  &  511 
to  those  of  ye  Choire  to  whom  you  directed  mee,  who  re- 
turne  theire  humble  service  &  thankes,  &  promise  to  con- 
tinue theire  constant  attendance  in  ye  service  of  ye  Church. 
J  likewise  payd  511  to  ye  Churchwardens  of  S*  Gyles's 
Criplegate  since  yor  last  to  me,  ye  rest  of  yor  charity  J 
hope  mr  Bing  will  give  a  good  account  of  it.     he  had  5h 

[146] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE    YEAR 

of  yor  last  mony  from  me.  Though  yor  care  could  not 
have  been  more  than  it  was  for  furnishinge  me  with  mony 
to  discharge  those  paymts-  wch  you  ordered  in  yor  last, 
yet  all  those  wayes  failed  every  one.  Dr  Barwick  pre- 
tended yesterday  yt  he  had  not  soe  much  mony  of  his  owne 
to  disburse  prsently,  but  att  ye  last  (though  alittle  scrupled 
at  first)  he  was  willing  to  let  me  take  4011  out  of  ye  Comon- 
stock  &  yt  we  intended  to  doe  this  morninge,  but  god  al- 
mighty has  ordred  it  otherwise,  by  strikeinge  Dr  Barwick 
with  so  desperate  sicknesse  yt  it  was  not  fitt  for  me  to  goe 
to  him,  nor  he  in  Condicon  to  be  reminded  of  any  such 
thinge.  it  seemes  not  one  member  but  all  the  parts  of  his 
body  beares  a  Parte  in  his  sufferinges,  neither  riseinge  nor 
botche  does  yet  appeare.  a  slow  weake  Pulse  &  faintnesse 
possesses  him,  his  sweating  is  not  much.  Seeing  this  to 
happen  it  made  me  void  of  hope  to  effect  my  businesse, 
yea  &  danted  me  very  much  too.  But  after  a  little  Pause 
J  went  to  Sr  Robt  Viners  (there  mr  welsted's  mony  lyes) 
but  could  not  receive  one  penny  vnlesse  J  brought  mr  wel- 
sted's note.  J  am  sorry  mr  welsted  should  forget  his  prom- 
ise,   he  is  some  where  towards  Vxbridge. 

Yor  Tennt  ffleetham  dyed  this  afternoon.  Kendrick  ye 
Bellringer  has  languished  since  last  Sonday  we  have  some 
hopes  this  eveninge  yt  he  may  recover.  Johnson  yor  Bay- 
liff  was  buried  last  night.  .   .   . 

Yor  faithfull  Sv* 

JO:   TILLISON. 


Same  to  same. 
Reuend  Sr 


Sept:  14th.  1665. 


Dr  Barwick  is  past  all  appearances  of  danger  god  be 
praised.  .  .  .  The  Sacrist  is  not  att  home  &  his  wife  is 
dead  by  ye  eomon  disease.  .  .  .  Wee  are  in  good  hopes 
yt  god  in  his  mercy  will  putt  a  stop  to  this  sad  calamity  of 
sicknesse.  But  ye  desolacon  of  ye  Citty  is  very  great,  yt 
heart  is  either  steel  or  stone  yt  will  not  lament  for  this  sad 

[147] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

visitation,  &  will  not  bleed  for  those  vnutterable  sorrowes. 
it  is  a  tyme  god  knowes  y*  one  Woe  courts  another,  those  y* 
are  sick  are  in  extream  sorrow,  ye  poore  are  in  need  those 
y*  are  in  health  are  in  feare  of  infecon  on  ye  one  side,  & 
ye  wicked  intentions  of  hellish  rebellious  spiritts  to  put  vs 
in  an  vproar  on  ye  other  side,  what  ey:  would  not  weep 
to  see  soe  many  habitacons  vninhabited?  ye  poore  sick  not 
vissited?  ye  hungry  not  fed?  ye  grave  not  satisfyed? 
Death  stares  vs  continually  in  ye  face  in  every  infected 
Person  y*  passeth  by  vs,  in  every  coffin  wch  is  dayly  & 
hourely  carried  along  ye  streets:  ye  Bells  never  cease  to 
putt  vs  in  minde  of  our  mortallity.  The  custom  was  in  ye 
beginninge  to  bury  ye  Dead  in  ye  night  onely,  now  both 
night  and  day  will  hardly  be  tyme  enough  to  do  it,  for 
ye  last  weeks  mortality  did  too  apparently  evidence  that,  that 
ye  Dead  was  piled  in  heapes  above  ground  for  some  houres 
together  before  either  tyme  could  be  gained  or  place  to 
bury  them  in.  The  Quakers  (as  we  are  informed)  have 
buryed  in  theire  peece  of  ground  1000  for  some  weekes  to- 
gether last  past,  many  are  dead  in  Ludgate,  Newgate  & 
X*  church  hospitall  &  many  other  places  about  ye  towne 
wch  are  not  included  in  ye  bill  of  Mortality.  The  disease 
it  self  (as  is  acknowledged  by  our  Practionrs  in  Physick) 
was  more  favourable  in  ye  begininge  of  ye  contagion: 
now  more  feirce  &  violent  —  and  they  themselves  do  like 
wise  confesse  to  stand  amazed  to  meet  with  soe  many 
various  Symptomes  wch  they  finde  amongst  theire  patients, 
one  week  ye  genr11  distempers  are  botches  &  Biles;  ye 
next  week  as  cleare  skind  as  may  be,  but  death  spares  neither, 
one  week  full  of  spotts  &  tokens;  &  Phaps  ye  succeeding 
bill  none  at  all.  Now  taken  with  a  vomitting  &  loosnesse 
&  within  2  or  3  dayes  almost  a  genr11-  rageing  madnesse. 
one  while  Patients  vse  to  linger  4  or  5  dayes  att  other  tymes 
not  48  houres.  &  att  this  very  tyme  we  finde  it  more  quick 
then  ever  it  was.  many  are  sick:  and  few  escape,  where 
it  has  had  its  fling  there  it  decreases  where  it  has  not  been 
long,  there  it  increases,  it  raigned  most  heretofore  in  Al- 
leys &c:  now  it  domineers  in  y&  open  streets.    Ye  poorer 

[148] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

sort  was  most  afflicted,  now  ye  richer  beare  a  share. 
Cap*  Colchester  is  dead.  ffleetham  &  all  his  family 
are  clearly  swept  away  except  one  mayd.  Dr  Bur- 
nett Dr  Glover  &  one  or  2  more  of  ye  Colledge  of  Physi- 
tians  wth  Dr  0  Dowd  wch  was  licensed  by  my  Lds  Grace 
of  Canterbury,  some  surgeons,  Apothecaryes,  &  Johnson 
ye  Chymist  dyed  all  very  suddenly,  some  say  (but  god 
forbid  y*  J  should  report  it  for  truth)  that  these  in  a 
consultacon  together,  if  not  all  yet  ye  greatest  parte  of 
them  attempted  to  open  a  dead  corpse  wcn  was  full  of  ye 
tokens  &  being  in  hand  with  ye  dissected  body  some  fell 
down  dead  imediately  &  others  did  not  out  live  ye  next  day  att 
Noone.  All  is  well  &  in  safety  att  yor  house  god  be  thanked. 
Brimstone,  Vpon  Tuesday  last  J  made  it  my  dayes  work 
hops,  Peppr  &    £0   kincQe   gjeg  in   every  roome  of  ye   house 

ffrankincense  .  ■'.  *■,*,■, 

Sr :  j  vse  to  where  J  could  do  it.  &  aired  all  ye  bed  clothes 
roomesT  &   bedding   att   ye   fires   &   soe   let   them   all 

with —  lye  ly  abroad  vntil  this  morning  ye  feather 

bed  in  ye  back  chamber  was  almost  spoiled  with  ye  heavy- 
weight of  Carpetts  &  other  things  vpon  it. —  J  ame  afrayd 
I  have  been  too  tedious  &  therefore  beg  yor  Pdon  &  take 
my  leave  who  am 

(Reuend  Sr) 
Yor  most  faithfull  humble  ser* 

JO:  TILLISOK 
Same  to  same. 
Reuend  Sr  October  ye  12*^  1665 

J  am  afrayd  yu  will  have  a  very  slender  account  of  yor 
Tennts  this  Quarter,     ffleetham,  swinston  &  his  wife,  Gul- 
stone  &  his  wife,  &  halfe  a  dozen  masters  of  familyes  are 
dead:  wth  many  more  in  other  familyes.  .    .    . 
Yor  most  obedient  faithfull  ser* 

JO:  TILLISON 
John  Overing  to  Dean  Sancroft. 

London  2d:  Nov.  1665. 
Right  Worp11 

In  right  humble  manner  I  presume  to  acquaint  you, 
that  ye  Rectory  of  S*  Mary  Maudlins  Old  fishstreete  in 

[149] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

London  in  your  Worps  guift  is  now  void  by  the  death  of 
the  late  reverend  divine  Dr:  Matthew  Griffith.  J  know 
that  in  duetie  J  am  bound  to  waite  on  you  in  person, 
to  giue  you  an  account  hereof,  but  by  reason  of  the  dainger 
of  the  times,  and  the  unkindnesse  of  country  people  to 
Londoners,  J  cannot  performe  it;  not  knowing  whether 
at  this  time  it  might  be  accepted  by  your  worp.  And  there- 
fore in  hopes  of  your  worps  pardon,  J  have  writ  these 
lines,  humbly  desiring  your  gracious  acceptance  of  them. 
...  J  am  incouraged  to  present  this,  my  humble  Supplica- 
tion, earnestly  desiring  that  your  worp  will  vouch  safe  to 
conferr  the  said  Rectory  upon  your  humble  petitioner.  J 
haue  (Right  Worp11)  supply ed  the  cure  during  all  these 
times  of  sicknesse,  and  mortality;  and  shall  yet  (God  assist- 
ing) wth:  your  worps  leaue  take  the  same  care  of  it  upon 
me:  hoping  that  your  worp  at  your  returne  to  London 
will  grant  this  request  of  your  humble  Supplicant.  J  shall 
not  further  trouble  your  worp  at  present,  but  Subscribe  my 
selfe* 

The  meanest  of  yor  worps  servts: 

JOHN  OUERING. 

George   Davenport   to   Dean   Sancroft. 

Durham  Castle  Dec  4  1665 
Mr  Dean; 

....  In  the  first  place,  God  be  praised,  we  are  all 
well.  And  I  do  not  hear  that  any  place  either  in  the 
County  or  Diocesse  is  infected  with  the  pestilence.   .    .    . 

From  a 

Petition  of  the  Bev.  Anselm  Herford  for  the  Rectory  of 

St.  Mary  Magdalene,  Old  Fish  St. 

London,  Decemb  ye  9th  1665. 
Most  Reuerend  Sr 

Blessed  be  ye  God  of  heauen  it  hath  pleased  his  mercie 

*This  is  a  sample  of  numerous  applications  made  toward  the 
close  of  1665  for  vacancies  in  the  Church  as  a  result  of  the  Plague. 
One  of  these  was  written  on  a  half  sheet  of  paper  as  less 
prejudicial,  fro  an  infected  city."    _^  Mgg    ^    ^  ^    ^ 

[150] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

to  preserue  me  Wonderfullie.  When  soe  manie  yea  and 
soe  manie  ministers  too  are  swept  away.  I  lodged  Jn  your 
Worships  rents  [i.  e.  with  the  tenants]  because  I  would  be 
neere  the  praiers  of  S*  Pauls  &  of  y*  familie  J  lodged  with 
ther's  not  a  soule  aliue  but  it  pleas' d  god  to  giue  me  warn- 
ing before  he  graciouslie  struck  the  fatall  blow.   .    .    . 

John    Cosin,   Bishop    of   Durham    to    Dean    Bancroft. 
Durham  Castle  Janry  22.  1665  [-6]. 
Mr  Deane  of  St  Pauls. 


The  Sicknes  in  these  parts  thankes  be  to  God  is  well 
abated  though  it  lurketh  still  in  some  of  our  Quarter,  for 
ye  maintenance  of  those  that  have  been  and  still  are  in- 
fected, wee  have  been  put  to  lay  a  Sesse  upon  the  Countrey 
so  small  were  ye  Contribucons  of  the  severall  Parishes 
throughout  all  my  Diocess,  but  J  have  now  good  hope  that 
upon  the  Account  made  me  both  of  those  Contribucons  and 
Assessmts:  J  shall  be  able  to  spare  5011  to  be  sent  unto  my 
Lord  [Bishop]  of  London  towards  the  help  of  those  that 
are  infected  still  in  this  City.  J  shall  have  ye  Amount 
given  me  on  thrsday  and  if  J  find  so  much  money  remain- 
ing J  will  return  it  to  his  Lordship  by  a  Bill  of  Exchange 
to  Sr  Wm  Turner  by  ye  morrowes  post,  so  wishing  you  all 
good  health  and  hapines  J  rest 

Sr 

Yor  very  affectionate  ffriend 

JO:    D 

George  Davenport  to  Dean  Sancroft. 

Durham  Castle.  Jan.  23.  1665  [-6]. 
Sir;  the  business  of  this  is  to  convey  the  enclosed,  wch  tells 
of  money  sent  for  ye  poor  of  London,  though  the  plague 
is  again  at  Gatside,  &  this  County  hath  been  taxed  about 
2501  for  y*  place  &  others  y*  have  been  infected.  .    .    . 

yr  humble  Servant, 

G.  D. 

[151] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 
Joseph  Beaumont  to  Dean  Sancroft. 


Sr 


I  purpos  this  day  to  acquaint  our  Vicechancellr  with 
what  you  write  touching  ye  D.  of  Xtchurch  his  charity  to 
poor  Cambr.  Last  week  none  dyed  of  ye  Plague  in  ye 
Town;  onely  One  at  ye  Pest  House,  but  this  week  it  has 
fallen  into  a  new  house  in  S.  Clements  parish,  &  one  Woman 
dead  of  it. 

S.  Peters  CoU  JSPH  BEAUMONT. 

Febr.  1.  1665  [-6] 


[152] 


APPENDIX  I 

From    the    Autobiography,    and    unpublished    Letters 

of  the  Rev.  Symon  Patrick,  Rector  of 

St.  Paul's,  Covent  Garden. 

At  the  end  of  1664  was  a  very  hard  frost,  which  lasted 
from  Christmas  till  near  the  middle  of  April  in  the  year 
1665,  when  the  plague  began  to  break  out,  a  little  after  the 
breaking  of  the  frost.  The  next  month,  May  13th-  I  went  to 
drink  Astrop  waters;  where  I  stayed  a  month,  and  there 
met  that  great  man  Dr.  Willis;  who  understanding  that  I 
intended  to  return  to  London,  and  look  after  my  parish, 
was  wonderfully  kind  to  me,  and  directed  me  how  to  order 
myself,  and  often  in  the  time  of  the  plague  wrote  to  me 
and  sent  me  money  to  give  to  the  poor. 

After  a  short  visit  which  I  paid  to  my  father  and 
mother,  I  returned  to  London  in  July,  where  I  found  the 
plague  already  broke  out  in  my  parish,  notwithstanding 
which,  I  resolved  to  commit  myself  to  the  care  of  God  in 
the  discharge  of  my  duty,  and  accordingly  preached  July 
23rd.  when  I  had  many  heavenly  meditations  in  my  mind, 
and  found  the  pleasure  wherewith  they  filled  the  soul  was  far 
beyond  all  the  pleasure  of  the  flesh.  Nor  could  I  fancy  any 
thing  would  last  so  long,  nor  give  me  such  joy  and  delight, 
as  those  thoughts  which  I  had  of  the  other  world,  and  the 
taste  which  God  vouchsafed  me  of  it.  .  .  .  About  the  middle 
of  August  I  set  myself  to  write  a  short  exhortation  to  those 
who  were  shut  up  because  of  the  plague,  and  just  when  I 
had  finished  it  heard  the  melancholy  news  of  my  father's 
death,  on  the  15th;  upon  which  I  wrote  a  letter  to  comfort 
my  mother,  wherewith  I  much  comforted  myself;  .  .  .  And 
on  the  30th.  I  thought  of  writing  a  little  treatise  of  com- 
fort in  this  sad  time,  which  I  finished  and  sent  to  my 
bookseller    September   the   first,   praying   the   blessing   of 

[153] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

Heaven  might  attend  upon  these  my  little  labours  for  the 
good  of  souls. 

On  the  3rd  my  brother  was  taken  very  ill,  and  vomited 
forty  or  fifty  times,  and  my  servant  also  had  a  swelled  face, 
and  I  myself  also  had  a  sore  pain  in  my  leg,  which  broke  my 
sleep,   and  made  me  suspect   some  touch   of  the  plague, 
which  was  now  come  to  its  height,  there  dying  ten  thou- 
sand in  one  week.     But  blessed  be  God  all  these  maladies 
went  over  without  danger.     On  the  9th     I  set  myself  to 
consider  the  great  goodness  of  God  to  me  since  this  plague, 
and  how  many  dangers  I  had  been  in  by  people  coming  to 
speak  to  me  out  of  infected  houses,  and  by  my  going  to 
those  houses  to  give  them  money,  which  was  sent  to  me  by 
charitable  persons  to  distribute  to  them  in  need.    Particu- 
larly Sir  William  Jones  sent  me  fifty  pounds,  and  many 
other  things  which  I  have  noted  in  a  little  book,  but  shall 
now  [not?]  here  rehearse.    One  thing  I  cannot  but  remem- 
ber, that  preaching  a  funeral  sermon  at  Battersea,  I  was 
desired  to  let  a  gentleman  come  back  to  London  in  a  coach 
which  I  had  hired  to  wait  upon  me.    The  gentleman  proved 
an  apothecary,  who  entertained  me  all  the  way  home  with  a 
relation  of  all  the  many  people  he  had  visited,  who  had  the 
plague,  how  they  were  affected,  with  the  nature  of  their 
swellings  and  sores.     But  blessed  be  God,  I  was  not  in  the 
least  affrighted,  but  let  him  go  on,  without  any  conceit  that 
he  might  infect  me. 

My  poor  clerk,  a  very  honest  man,  found  his  house  in- 
fected, and  acquainted  me  with  it.  I  was  so  pitiful  as  to 
bid  him  come  out  of  the  house  himself,  and  attend  his  busi- 
ness, and  I  should  not  be  afraid  of  him.  He  did  so,  and 
his  wife  and  child  died  of  the  plague ;  but  he  was  preserved, 
and  had  a  thankful  remembrance  of  my  kindness  to  his 
dying  day,  many  years  after. 

On  the  15th  of  October  I  preached  a  sermon,  (when 
the  plague  began  to  abate  very  much)  of  the  remembrance 
we  ought  to  have  of  the  time  of  affliction,  when  God  restores 
to  prosperity.  It  was  upon  consideration  of  Psalm  xxxviii, 
whose  title  is  'a  Psalm  to  bring  to  remembrance ;'  wherein 

[154] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

I  wished  them  to  set  down  in  writing  all  that  they  found  ob- 
servable in  the  late  time  of  danger;  their  thoughts,  their 
promises  and  vows,  their  good  resolutions,  &c,  and  to  write 
at  the  head  of  them,  'A  meditation  to  bring  to  remembrance.' 
And  accordingly  I  noted  how  good  God  had  been  to  myself, 
not  only  in  preserving  my  life,  but  giving  so  much  health, 
and  enabling  me  with  cheerfulness  to  go  through  my 
labours;  resolving  to  do  my  duty  still  more  faithfully  for 
the  time  to  come. 

— From  the  Autobiography  of  Symon  Patrick,  pp.  51-56. 
From     the      unpublished      correspondence      between 
Symon  Patrick  and  Elizabeth  Gauden.* 

Add.  Mss.  5,810. 

Covent  Gard  Wednesd  Morn: 

Aug:  8.  1665. 

If  you  think  there  is  any  Danger  from  these  Papers, 
which  you  receive,  the  Fire,  I  suppose,  will  expell  it,  if  you 
let  them  see  it  before  they  come  to  your  Hands.  .  .  . 
For  Mrs.  Gauden  S.  P. 

at  Hutton-Hall  in  Essex,  these. 
Same  to  same. 

Sat:  Sept:  8.1665. 

It  was  a  lovely  Season  yesterday,  &  we  hoped  for  some 
sweete  cleare  Weather:  but  it  please  God,  the  Wind  is 
changed  againe,  &  brings  Abundance  of  Raine  with  it :  &  in- 
deed we  have  no  settled  Weather  since  I  saw  you,  which  hath 
made  the  Sicknesse,  I  believe,  rage  more:  for  South  Winds 
are  alwayes  observed  to  be  bad  in  such  Times:  &  the  Wind 
stays  not  long  out  of  that  Quarter.  It  decreases  in  some 
Places,  &  grows  very  much  in  others.  I  hope  there  will  not 
so  many  dye  here  [in  St.  Pauls,  C.  G.]  as  did  last  week;  & 
yet  we  have  21  or  22  dead  already.     I  suppose  you  think  I 

*  I  am  not  certain  whether  this  Mrs.  Gauden  was  wife  of  Dr.  J. 
Gauden  (then  minister  at  Booking  in  Essex,  and  afterwards 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury),  or  Sir  Denis  Gauden  of  the  Victual- 
ling Office.  There  are  two  conflicting  opinions  on  the  first  leaf 
of   the   MS.    volume   containing   these   letters. 

[155] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES    OF   DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

intend  to  stay  here  still ;  though  I  understand  by  your  Ques- 
tion you  would  not  have  mee.  But,  my  Friend,  what  am  I 
better  than  another?  Somebody  must  stay  here:  and  is  it 
fit  I  should  set  such  a  value  upon  myself,  as  my  going  away, 
&  leaving  another  will  signify?  For  it  will,  in  effect  be  to 
say,  That  I  am  too  good  to  be  lost,  but  is  no  matter  if  an- 
other bee.  Truly  I  do  not  think  myself  so  considerable  to 
the  World:  &  though  my  Friends  set  a  great  Price  upon 
mee,  yet  that  Temptation  hath  not  yet  made  me  of  that 
Mind :  and  I  know  their  Love  makes  me  pass  for  more  with 
them  then  I  am  worth.  When  I  mention  that  Word,  Love, 
I  confesse,  it  moves  me  much,  &  I  have  a  great  Passion  for 
them,  &  wish  I  might  live  to  embrace  them  once  again :  but 
I  must  not  take  any  undue  Courses  to  satisfye  this  Passion, 
which  is  but  too  strong  in  mee.  I  must  let  Reason  prevaille, 
&  stay  with  my  Charge,  which  I  take  hitherto  to  be  my 
Duty,  whatever  come.  I  cannot  tell  what  Good  wee  do 
their  Soules,  though  I  preach  to  those  who  are  well,  and 
write  to  those  who  are  ill,  (  I  mean  print  little  Papers  for 
them,  which  yet  are  too  big  to  send  by  the  Post ; )  but  I  am 
sure,  while  I  stay  here,  I  shall  do  Good  to  their  Bodies, 
&  perhaps  save  some  from  perishing;,  which  I  look  upon  as 
a  considerable  End  of  my  continuing.  My  dear  Friend,  do 
not  take  it  ill,  that  I  cannot  comply  with  your  Desire  on  this 
Thing;  you  see  what  sways  mee,  &  I  know  that  you  will 
yield  to  it,  &  that  it  ought  to  be  stronger  then  the  Love  of 
you.  If  you  can  convince  mee,  that  I  may,  with  a  good 
Conscience,  go,  you  may  think  it  will  be  acceptable:  but  I 
know  not  upon  what  Grounds  you  will  make  it  good.  Try, 
if  you  have  a  mind.  But  if  I  should  go,  why  would  you 
have  me  be  at  Clapham,  when  my  Brother  is  so  neare,  &  you 
are  not  there?  .  .  .  Perhaps  you  meane,  that  I  should  be 
there  on  Week  Dayes,  and  preach  here  on  Lords  Dayes. 
But  that  will  be  dangerous  perhaps  both  to  them  &  to  mee : 
at  least  to  them :  &  I  have  not  hitherto  layne  out  one  Night 
since  you  left  Clapham.  .  .  .  May  I  not  buy  a  Paire  of 
Stockins,  of  a  Friend,  whom  I  can  be  confident  is  not  in- 
fected, &  which  have  layne  long  in  his  Shop  f  I  want  nothing 

[156] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

else  at  present.  And  how  should  it  be  more  dangerous  then 
to  receive  Bear  &  Wine,  the  Vessells  being  capable  of  Infec- 
tion? but  especially  Bread,  they  say,  is  the  most  attractive 
of  it,  which  I  am  forced  to  buy :  for  I  know  not  otherwayes 
to  have  it.  I  saw  last  Tuesday  about  30  People  in  the 
Strand,  with  white  Sticks  in  their  Hands,  &  the  Dr  of  the 
Pest  House  walking  in  his  gowne  before  them.  The  first 
Woman  rid  on  a  Horse,  &  had  a  Paper  Flag  on  top  of  her 
Stick,  with  Laus  Deo  written  on  it.  They  were  going  to 
the  Iustices,  being  poore  People  sent  thither,  &  recovered  by 
him  of  the  Plague.  He  seemed  to  take  no  small  Content  in 
his  stately  March  before  them.  But  now  I  have  told  Tales 
of  myself,  &  confessed  that  I  go  sometimes  Abroad.  In- 
deed, it  cannot  be  well  helpt,  &  I  hope  there  is  no  great 
Danger.  I  will  not  grow  bold,  &  confident  by  being  safe  so 
long,  nor  would  I  grow  timorous,  as  such  Case  as  you  re- 
quire, I  doubt,  will  make  mee.  I  saw  a  Letter  from  Salis- 
bury of  the  6  Instant,  which  saith,  now  the  Plague  has 
broke  out  there,  &  his  Majesty  will  be  gone  suddenly.  He 
hath  not  been  well  of  late,  and  imagines  that  Aire  doth  not 
agree  with  him.  This  is  true :  for  it  comes  from  one  of  my 
Parish  there,  who  is  well  acquainted  att  the  Court.  Now  I 
must  make  and  End,  &  only  add  my  hearty  Love  to  all  with 
you,  &  your  Friends,  praying  for  your  Preservation,  &  re- 
maining yrs  most  affectionately 

S.  P. 

I  forgot  to  tell  you,  that  instead  of  the  Plague  Drink  you 
writ  of,  they  have  sent  me  Plague  Water,  or  some  such 
Thing;  for  it  is  distilled  &  nothing  like  what  I  had  before: 
but  never  trouble  them  to  send  me  any.  DT  Michael 
Thwayle  directed  to  make,  &  drink  presently  of  London 
Treacle  &  Lady  Allen's  Water.  I  bought  both  presently, 
but  forgot  to  mix  them.  Only  now  and  then  I  take  a  little 
Treacle. 

For  my  Honoured  Friend 

Mrs  Gauden  att  Hutton-Hall. 

Leave  this  at  the  White  Hart  in  Burntwood,  Essex. 

[157] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

Same  to  same. 

Sat:  Night.  Sept:  30. 1665. 
My  Friend. 

•  ••»••• 

You  enquire  what  Ministers  are  dead?  for  you  heard  of 
some  &  would  know  the  Truth.  There  are  more,  to  tell  you 
plainly,  then  the  Number  you  name.  MT-  Peachall,  &  MT- 
Mandrill,  who  were  lecturers,  dyed  a  good  while  ago:  one 
of  them  Lecturer  of  St-  Clement's,  the  other  at  Benet  Fink. 
Since,  there  dyed  one  Mr-  Austin,  minister,  I  think,  of  St- 
Mary  Stainings:  the  minister  of  Alphage,  whose  Name,  I 
think,  was  MT-  Stone.  One  MT-  Bastwick,  (son  to  the  fa- 
mous Doctor  of  that  Name)  who  was  Preacher  at  the 
Counter  in  the  Poultry e;  MT-  WeTbank,  one  of  the  ministers 
of  S*"  Saviour's,  Southwark:  Mr-  Throchmorton,  Curate  of 
#*•  George's,  Southwark:  &  a  Gentleman  who  officiated  for 
MT-  Hall  in  Bastshaw.  All  these  I  can  call  to  mind ;  and  the 
mention  of  this  last,  whos  Name,  I  think,  was  Phillips, 
brings  a  sad  story  to  my  mind,  which  I  will  relate,  because 
something  depends  upon  it  which  I  ought  to  remember.  On 
Tuesday  was  Fortnight,  I  was  at  Dr-  Owtram's,  &  MT-  Bast- 
wick, whom  I  spake  of,  came  in,  whom  I  never  saw  before, 
and  the  Doctor  not  often.  He  came  to  make  a  Visit,  but  the 
DT-  has  no  Acquaintance  with  him,  only  had  met  him  at  a 
Friend's.  He  had  all  the  Newes  of  the  Towne,  &  particu- 
larly told  us  of  the  death  of  that  Gentleman  who  supplied 
MT-  Hall's  Place.  He  was  left  in  Trust  to  pay  him  his  Money 
every  Munday;  &  he  told  us  how  timourous  he  was,  &  care- 
full,  that  he  would  scarce  come  into  his  House  to  receive  it : 
&  that  he  preached  the  Sunday  sennight  before,  but  was 
dead,  with  his  wife,  &  all  his  Children  (which  were  3)  before 
Thursday  Night.  The  next  Time  I  met  DT-  Outram,  he  told 
mee,  that  Mr-  Bastwick  went  from  us  Home,  &  fell  sick  that 
very  night,  &  dyed  a  few  Days  after,  I  think  on  Sunday. 
The  Dr-  added,  that  he  did  not  like  his  looks  then,  &  thought 
there  was  a  great  Alteration  in  his  Countenance;  but  he  said 
nothing  to  me  when  he  was  gone,  (which  was  about  5 
o'Clock)  though  to  his  Man  he  gave  a  Charge  (as  he  tells 

[158] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

me)  that  if  he  came  againe,  he  should  not  let  him  in,  but  say, 
he  could  not  be  spoken  withall.  You  see  how  much  wee  are 
beholden  to  God  in  keeping  us  from  the  Dangers  to  which 
we  are  exposed.  Mr-  Lance  in  Lombard  Street  also  is  dead 
lately,  but  not  of  the  Sicknesse.  The  minister  of  Kentish 
Town  hath  had  it,  &  is  recovered.  I  think  I  have  heard  of 
another  or  two,  that  were  Curates  but  of  no  more  Ministers, 
The  last  Weeke  gave  us  great  Encouragement  to  hope  for 
the  Restoration  of  better  Health :  but  I  am  something  afraid 
this  Week  will  raise  it  againe  alittle :  for  wee  have  15  or  16 
dead  already,  and  had  but  19  last  Weeke  in  all.  It  is  fit 
perhaps  that  it  should  be  so,  least  men  impute  all  to  the 
cold  weather,  &  nothing  to  God's  Goodnesse.  The  more  in- 
scrutable this  Disease  is,  &  beyond  the  Account  of  Men, 
the  more  are  they  directed  to  acknowledge  a  supreme  Power 
that  chastises  men,  &  corrects  their  Disobedience.  There 
are  People  who  rely  upon  pitifull  Things,  as  contains 
Tokens  of  its  goeing  away  shortly.  I  have  been  told,  more 
then  once,  of  the  falling  out  of  the  Clapper  of  the  great  Bell 
at  Westminster,  which  they  say,  it  did  before  the  last  Great 
Plague  ended :  &  this  they  take  for  a  very  comfortable  Sign. 
Others  speake  of  the  Dawes  more  frequenting  the  Pallace 
&  Abbey,  which,  if  true,  is  a  better  Sign,  supposing  the  Aire 
to  have  been  infected.  For  the  Bookes  I  read  tell  mee,  that 
the  goeinge  away  of  Birds  is  the  Forerunner  of  the  Plague, 
&  that  one  shall  see  few  in  a  Plague  Yeare.  The  Death  of 
Birds  in  Houses  when  they  are  caged,  ordinarily  preceedes 
the  Death  of  the  Inhabitants :  for  these  aiery  Creatures  feale 
the  Alteration  in  that  Element  sooner  then  wee.  Thus  you 
see  how  desirous  all  are  for  some  Token  for  Good  &  how 
they  catch  at  the  smallest  Shadowes  for  it.  But  the  best 
Sign  of  all,  I  doubt,  is  much  wanting :  &  that  is,  the  Befor- 
mation  of  mens  manners, — of  which  I  heare  little;  unlesse 
that  those  come  to  Church,  who  did  not  before.  ...  A  sad 
Thing,  that  the  Event  of  these  Iudgments  proves  no  better! 
But  so  it  comonly  falls  out,  &  men  soon  forget  both  their 
Smart,  &  also  the  good  Resolutions  which  it  formed.  I 
hope,  my  Friend,  the  Hand  of  God  will  not  be  without  its 

[159] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

a  great  Wisdome,  as  well  as  Iustice,  in  this  Restraint  which 
I  now  suffer,  &  therefore  I  thankfully  accept  it,  &  intreat 
you  to  assist  mee  with  your  Prayers,  that  I  may  both  un- 
derstand the  meaning  of  it,  &  likewise  make  the  right  use 
which  God  intends.  I  must  ever  also  acknowledge  a  won- 
derfull  Kindnesse  of  Cod  to  mee  mixed  with  this ;  for  I  am 
well  &  chearfull  to  my  Admiration  &  Astonishment,  when 
I  seriously  think  of  it.  I  could  not  have  expected  to  spend 
my  Time,  &  find  it  so  little  a  Burden  to  mee,  as  it  used  now 
&  then  to  be  when  I  was  alone.  The  long  Evenings,  when  I 
see  none  (I  give  God  Thanks)  pass  away  without  any  Irk- 
somenesse  at  all.  I  have  quite  changed  my  Diet.  I  eat 
boiled  Meats  &  Broth  more  then  I  used:  something  at  Sup- 
per also,  which  does  not  hinder  my  Thoughts.  You  see  I 
take  Care  of  myself,  &  by  this  long  Letter  will  perceive 
that  you  are  much  in  the  Thoughts  of  your  ever  affect: 
Friend 

S.  P. 

Sat:  Night,  Oct:  7.  1665. 
I  have  taken  a  little  Cold,  which  hath  put  some  Damp 
upon  my  Spirits — I  knew  it  would  be  so, — for  I  felt  the 
Wind  strike  into  my  Head  as  I  was  burying  a  Corpse  one 
Night.  That  is  a  Thing  I  have  oft  found  prejudiciall :  but 
there  is  no  Body  else  to  do  it  now.  I  think  too  sometimes 
I  have  too  great  a  Burden  of  Worke  upon  mee :  but  hither- 
to I  go  through  it  very  well;  only  I  am  sometimes  a  little 
weary  after  preaching  twice;  especially  when  the  Fast  Week 
comes.  It  comes  now  &  then  into  my  Wishes,  that  I  was 
more  free  from  this  Kind  of  Buisinesse  in  a  Parish;  for  I 
suppose  I  could  profitably  employ  my  Time  in  some  other 
Way.  But  I  check  myself  in  this  &  a  great  many  other 
Wishes,  knowing  there  is  no  Contentment  but  in  conforming 
our  Wills  to  our  present  Conditions.  .  .  . x  Wee  are  in  great 
Hopes  of  a  considerable  Decrease  this  Week.  Here  indeed 
wee  have  buried  many,  &  so  they  do  at  Westminster,  as  Dr- 
Outram  tells  mee;  but  in  other  Places  the  Bells  do  not  go  so 

1  After  the   Plague,   Patrick  was  raised  to  the  bishopric   of   Chiches- 
ter and,  later,  to  that  of  Ely. 

[160] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

Instruction  to  us,  &  that  wee  shall  be  carefull,  if  he  let  ug 
live,  to  improve  it  as  we  ought.  I  cannot  but  acknowledge 
oft.  I  must  correct  an  Error  in  my  last  but  one  MT-  Welbank 
is  not  dead,  as  was  reported :  it  is  the  Curate,  one  MT-  Knight- 
ley,  who,  they  say,  did  not  dye  of  the  Sicknesse  neither. 
This  was  Occasion  of  the  Report  that  Mr-  Shilling-fleet  was 
dead;  the  Reader  of  St.  Andrew's  Holborne  dying  a  good 
while  ago;  but  as  for  MT-  Shilling-fleet  he  has  not  beene  here 
along  Time  but  gets  his  Place  supplyed  by  somebody.  .   .   . 

Yours  very  affectionately, 

8.  P. 

Octob:  12.   [1665]. 
My  Friend, 

It  happens  to  be  such  a  bright  Night,  that  I  cannot 
say  all  that  I  would.  I  have  not  had  so  many  Burialls  a 
great  while,  &  I  deferred  to  write  till  Night,  being  with  my 
Brother  at  Battersea  all  Day.  The  Sicknesse  is  not  de- 
creased so  much  as  wee  expected:  but  wee  ought  to  be  very 
thankful  for  any  Abatement.  There  are  652  less  this  Week 
then  the  last.  There  dyed  here  [in  my  Parish]  but  15, 
which  is  10  less  then  the  Weeke  before.  How  it  will  be  this 
Week  I  know  not;  but  there  are  9  dead  already,  6  being 
buried  to  Night.  In  the  next  Parish  of  St.  Martin's  there 
dyed  no  more  to  Bay,  which  gives  Hope  still  of  a  Decrease 
there.  The  Sicknesse  is  much  at  Wandsworth,  where  24 
dyed  in  one  Week.  It  is  got  into  Wiltshire  also,  &  is  very 
neare  Sir  W.  St-  John's,  so  that  they  have  sent  their  Chil- 
dren away  to  MT-  Bernard's  neare  Huntingdon.  It  is  a  very 
sad  Time  I  perceive  every  where,  &  I  must  acknowledge  it  a 
very  singular  Favour  of  God,  that  I  am  so  much  supported. 
I  hope  I  shall  not  forget  his  Goodnesse  if  he  let  me  live  to 
see  more  healthfull  &  pleasant  Seasons.  He  knows  how 
long  it  is  necessary  to  keep  us  under,  &  how  much  Time  is 
Requisite  to  make  us  thoroughly  serious.  If  that  be  but 
effected,  we  shall  have  a  more  sober  Ioy  hereafter.  .  .  . 

8.  P. 

[161] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

Covent  Garden,  Oct.  14  [1665] 

People  are  grown  bold,  &  because  they  find  themselves 
well,  they  think  their  Neighbours  ought  not  to  shun  them, 
though  they  have  some  dye  of  the  Plague  in  their  Houses. 
In  many  Places  they  do  not  shut  them  up,  &  so  they  take 
their  Liberty  to  come  abroad;  and  there  also  when  they 
need  not,  &  where  they  ought  to  be  more  civill.  But  wee 
must  not  expect  that  from  ordinary  People:  it  is  a  Thing 
proper  to  better  bred  Souls.  If  the  Vulgar  be  not  intoller- 
ably  rude,  we  are  beholden  to  them. 

From  your  affectionate  Friend 

Sy-  Patrick. 

Octob:  17.   [1665]. 

•  •••••• 

Wee  expect  a  very  great  abatement  this  Week  in  the 
Whole,  though  here  [in  my  Parish]  wee  buried  one  more 
then  last  Week.  The  Citty  Remembrancer  told  a  Friend  of 
mine,  that  there  are  1500  lesse  without  the  Walls  then  last 
Week,  beside  the  Decrease  in  the  Citty.  I  heare  MT- 
John  Goodwin  is  dead  somewhere  in  Essex.  It  is  said  that 
DT-  Bolton  also  is  dead  in  the  Country  whether  he  went  be- 
cause of  the  Contagion. 

I  am  your  affect:  Friend 

S.P. 
Oct:  21.  [1665]. 

•  •••••• 

MT-  Cradock  writes  me  word,  he  hath  a  great  mind  to 
return,  tho'  there  is  no  Term  here,  &  I  think  he  will  have  no 
Employment.  .  .  . 

My  poor  Clarke  .  .  .  hath  had  his  Family  sadly  visited. 
His  Wife  &  7  Children  (all  he  hath)  have  beene  all  sicke:  & 
now  his  Wife  &  one  Child  are  dead,  &  she  big  with  Child. 
The  Rest  are  like  to  do  well,  &  I  hope  I  have  saved  the  poor 
Man  by  timely  Advice  to  remove  himself,  that  he  may  take 
Care  of  all  the  Rest. 

Your  affectionate  Friend, 

S.P. 
[162] 


OF   THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

Nov:  7.  1665. 
My  Friend, 

I  have  made  further  Enquiries  about  the  Accesse  of 
People  to  London,  &  their  State  of  Health  since  they  came, 
but  can  find  no  Ground  for  those  sad  Reports  which  you 
have.  This  I  find,  that  the  same  Storyes  are  spread  in  other 
Countries,  &  People  are  thereby  affrighted  from  coming 
thither:  but  there  is  no  Cause,  as  farre  as  I  can  learne. 
Yesterday  I  met  Mr-  Holliard,  (who  askt  very  kindly  of 
you)  who  told  mee  he  heard  2  Linen  Drapers  in  Cornwall 
were  returned,  &  dead :  but  he  enquired  of  their  Neighbours, 
&  they  knew  of  no  such  Thing.  Yet  I  think  my  Church- 
Warden  says  well,  That  of  all  the  Lyes  he  hath  heard,  he 
thinks  this  will  do  least  Harm :  for  it  will  keep  People  from 
flocking  too  fast  to  London,  which  otherwise  they  might  be 
apt  to  do.  The  Soldiers  (who  have  hitherto  beene  quartered 
in  Tents  in  Hyde  Park)  returned  yesterday  into  the  Citty; 
I  suppose  because  of  the  Weather,  which  may  indanger  their 
Healths  more  then  this  Place.  .  .  . 

[S.  P.] 

Nov:  9.   [1665]. 
My  deare  Friend. 

I  suppose  you  will  heare  before  this  can  reach  you, 
that  the  Sicknesse  did  not  decrease  so  much  last  Week,  but 
it  has  increased  as  much  in  this  that  is  nearly  past — I  have 
walked  to  Battersea  and  back  againe  with  a  great  Deale 
of  Ease  this  Day.  They  have  had  none  dye  there  this  Fort- 
night; but  at  Wandsworth  there  is  still  a  great  Mortality: 
there  are  12  dead  since  Sunday,  as  one  of  the  Parish  tells 
mee.  You  may  think  the  Increase  of  the  Sicknesse  here 
comes  from  the  Accesse  of  more  People:  but  I  think  it  is 
otherwise:  for  it  is  much  increased  in  Lambeth,  &  in 
Wandsworth  (  as  I  told  you)  from  whence  People  rather 
run  away.  It  is  to  be  ascribed  rather  to  the  unseasonable 
Weather  that  hath  beene  of  late;  &  most  of  all  to  the  wise 
Goodnesse  of  God,  who  intends  to  shew,  that  wee  are  not 
yet  so  safe  as  sucure  Sinners  imagin.    I  observe  that  Peo- 

[163] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

pie  grow  remisse  already,  &  their  Fervours  are  already 
cooled.  Wee  had  nothing"  so  good  a  Congregation  yesterday 
as  wee  used  to  have :  &  therefore  God  may  in  mercy  quicken 
us  againe  to  mind  our  Duty,  &  rouse  up  dull  Souls  by  this 
new  Alarm.  At  least  it  may  have  this  Effect,  to  keepe  from 
flocking  to  the  Towne  as  fast  as  they  may  be  disposed  to ;  & 
also  continue  in  Men's  Minds  a  Dread  of  the  Sicknesse, 
whenever  wee  mention  it,  which  is  so  unaccountable.  You 
hope,  I  see,  that  I  should  be  able  to  acquaint  you  with  its 
Nature:  but  truly,  after  all  my  Inquiries  &  Observations,  I 
can  learne  little,  But  that  it  seises  upon  People  strangely, 
&  handles  them  variously.  Some  are  affected  in  one  manner, 
&  some  another,  &  some  are  smitten  that  stir  not  half  so 
much  "abroad  as  I.  But  this  will  be  too  long  a  Discourse.  I 
do  not  heare  neither  of  any  of  your  Acquaintance  dead :  but 
I  said,  I  believe,  wee  shall  miss  many  in  the  Conclusion; 
because  I  heare  now  &  then  of  some  that  I  knewe  that  are 
swept  away  a  good  many  Weeks  ago,  before  I  heard  of  it. 
Wee  have  but  a  few  dead  in  the  Parish  this  Week,  (Thanks 
be  to  God  for  it)  though  all  our  neighbouring  Parishes 
have  had  an  Increase  &c. 

Your  most  affectionate  Friend 

S.P. 

Dec:  5.  [1665]. 
My  Friend, 

•  •••••• 

Just  now  came  Newes  to  mee  by  one  that  is  come  from 
the  darks  Hall,  that  the  Sicknesse  is  decreased  above  an 
100;  which  is  a  great  Mercy;  for  we  feared  an  Increase.  The 
just  Number  they  would  not  declare,  because  my  ZA  Mayor 
must  have  it  first:  &  I  heard  lately  that  he  imprisoned  one 
of  the  Officers,  because  they  spread  Abroad  the  Account, 
before  they  came  to  him:  which  indeed  was  unhandsome. 
There  was  not  one  dyed  at  Westminster  on  Sunday  last; 
which  is  a  Thing  seldome  happens  in  healthfull  Times. 

Farewell. 

[S.  P.] 
[164] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

December  14.  [1665]. 

My  Friend, 

I  cannot  send  you  so  good  Newes  as  I  did  the  last  Week 
of  the  Decrease  of  the  Sieknesse.  ...  It  is  not  much  in- 
deed :  but  it's  something  sad  at  this  Time  of  the  Yeare,  not 
to  see  it  still  fall  more  &  more.  So  wee  promised  ourselves 
that  it  would ;  &  many  are  returned  upon  that  Presumption. 
But  wee  must  all  look  up  to  an  higher  Hand,  who  still  thinks 
good  to  hold  his  Rod  over  us,  &  who  alters  the  Weather  as 
he  pleases;  on  which  depends  very  much,  I  persuade  my- 
self, these  Ebbs  &  Flows  of  this  Disease.  If  it  do  not  leave 
us  this  Winter,  God  knows  when  I  shall  see  you :  for  I  sup- 
pose you  will  scarce  be  persuaded  to  come  to  Clapham, 
though  you  love  it  so  well,  if  the  Citty  be  not  quite  clear  of 
it.  .  .  .  I  have  enquired,  I  assure  you,  about  a  Man  to  do 
my  Buiinesse  here  sometimes :  but  the  Towne  is  empty  of  all 
such  Persons;  &  he  that  was  wont  to  do  it  is  dead,  I  am 
sure;  for  I  buried  him;  it  being  his  Desire,  though  he 
lived  in  St-  Martin's  Parish.  I  am  apt  to  think  sometimes, 
that  none  of  my  Neighbours  are  so  burthened  as  I :  but  Use 
&  Custome  hath  now  made  it  easy,  &  I  forget  what  it  is  that 
I  do  continually.  .  .  . 

w-  p.] 

Decembr  21.    [1665]. 
The  Towne  now  begins  to  fill  againe.  .  .  .     There  is  a 
great  Increase  of  the  Sieknesse  this  Week.  .    .    . 

[S.  P.] 

Decembr  23   [1665]. 
Wee  have  never  a  one  yet  dead  of  the  Plague  [in  our 
Parish  this  Week],  as  it  is  judged:  though  3  of  other  Dis- 
eases. .  .  . 

[S.  P.] 


[165] 


APPENDIX  J 

Fkom  Flavius  Josephus,   Works,  7th  ed.    (1773),  Vol. 
IV,  Bk.  VII,  Ch.  12. 

How  easily  were  these  superstitious  wretches  [i.  e.  the 
Jews]  seduced  into  a  belief  of  false  oracles,  counterfeits 
and  impostors!  But  when  they  were  at  any  time  premon- 
ished  from  the  lips  of  truth  itself,  by  prodigies,  and  other 
monitory  prognostics  of  their  approaching  ruin,  they  had 
neither  eyes,  ears  nor  understanding  to  make  right  use  or 
application  of  them.     As  for  example  now, 

What  shall  we  say  to  the  comet  that  hung  over  Jeru- 
salem one  whole  year  together,  in  the  figure  of  a  sword  ? 

What  shall  we  think  again  of  that  wonderful  light  that 
was  seen  about  the  altar  .  .  .  and  continued  for  the  space  of 
half  an  hour  as  bright  as  day.  This  prodigy  was  looked 
upon  by  the  ignorant  as  a  good  omen ;  but  it  was  expounded 
by  those  who  knew  better  things,  as  the  forerunner  of  a 
war;  and  the  mystery  unfolded  before  it  came  to  pass. 

At  the  same  festival  [of  the  Paschal  Feast],  there  was 
another  prodigy  of  a  cow  delivered  of  a  lamb  in  the  middle 
of  the  temple,  as  they  were  leading  her  up  to  the  altar  for 
sacrifice. 

The  eastern  gate  of  the  inner  temple  was  made  of  solid 
brass ;  and  so  very  heavy  that  it  was  as  much  as  twenty  men 
could  do  every  night  to  shut  it :  besides  that  it  was  fastened 
with  iron  bolts  and  bars,  mortissed  into  a  huge  thres- 
hold of  one  entire  stone.  This  gate,  about  the  sixth  hour 
of  the  night,  opened  of  itself:  and  .  .  .  the  wiser  sort  .  .  . 
foretold  desolation  to  the  city. 

Some  short  time  after  the  festival  was  over,  .  .  .  there 
appeared  a  prodigy  of  a  vision  so  extraordinary,  that  I 
should  hardly  venture  to  report  it,  if  I  could  not  produce 
several  eye-witnesses  that  are  yet  living  to  confirm  the  truth 

[166] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

of  it ;  and  if  the  calamities  that  were  foretold,  had  not  come 
to  pass.  There  were  seen  up  and  down  in  the  air,  before 
sun-set,  chariots  and  armed  men  all  over  the  country,  pass- 
ing along  with  the  clouds  round  about  the  city. 

Upon  the  feast  of  Pentecost,  as  the  priests  were  a-going 
to  officiate,  .  .  .  they  heard  at  first  a  kind  of  confused  mur- 
mur; and  after  that,  a  voice  calling  out  earnestly  in  articu- 
late words,  Let  us  be  gone,  let  us  be  gone. 

But  I  come  now  to  a  story  that  passes  all  the  rest.  A 
matter  of  four  years  before  the  war  [with  Titus],  when  the 
city  was  in  a  profound  peace,  and  flowing  in  plenty,  there 
was  one  Jesus  the  son  of  Ananus,  a  plain  country  fellow, 
who  coming  to  the  feast  of  Tabernacles  .  .  .  brake  out  on  a 
sudden  into  this  exclamation  over  and  over.  "A  voice  from 
the  east,  a  voice  from  the  west;  a  voice  from  the  four 
quarters  of  the  world;  a  voice  to  Jerusalem,  and  a  voice  to 
the  temple ;  a  voice  to  new  married  men  and  women ;  and  a 
voice  to  the  whole  nation."  This  was  his  cry  day  and 
night,  from  place  to  place,  through  every  street  of  the  city. 
Some  great  men  in  the  government  took  such  great  of- 
fence at  so  ill  boding  a  liberty,  that  they  ordered  the  man  to 
be  taken  up  and  severely  whipt.  He  took  the  punishment 
without  returning  so  much  as  one  word,  either  by  the  by,  or 
in  his  own  defence,  or  to  complain  of  hard  measure;  but 
still  he  went  on  and  on  with  the  same  things  over  and  over 
again,  calling  and  denouncing  as  before.  The  magistrates 
began  now  to  inspect  (as  they  had  reason  for  it)  somewhat 
of  a  divine  impulse  in  what  he  said;  and  that  he  spake  by 
an  extraordinary  spirit.  He  was  carried,  upon  this,  to  Al- 
binus  the  governor  of  Judaea ;  who  caused  him  to  be  lashed 
to  the  very  bones,  which  he  took  without  either  tears  or  sup- 
plication; only  in  a  mournful  voice,  as  well  as  he  could,  he 
followed  every  stroke  with  a  Wo,  wo  to  Jerusalem!  Albinus, 
as  his  judge,  fell  then  to  asking  him  what  he  was,  whence 
he  came,  where  he  was  born,  and  what  he  meant  by  that  way 
of  proceeding?  But  he  gave  him  no  answer.  This  was  his 
way  all  along,  till  Albinus  was  fain  to  discharge  him  at  last 
as  a  madman.     From  that  time  to  the  beginning  of  the  war, 

[167] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

he  was  never  known  to  visit  or  speak  to  any  of  the  citizens ; 
or  to  make  use  of  any  other  than  that  doleful  form  of 
words,  Wo,  wo  to  Jerusalem !  He  never  gave  an  ill  word  to 
those  that  daily  scourged  him,  or  a  good  one  even  to  those 
that  fed  him:  but  his  answer  was  to  all  people  alike,  an 
ominous  presage.  He  was  observed  to  be  still  more  clam- 
orous upon  festivals,  than  upon  other  days:  at  this  rate  he 
went  on  for  seven  years  and  five  months;  and  neither  his 
voice  nor  his  strength  failing  him,  till  the  seige  of  Jerusalem 
verified  his  predictions.  After  this  he  took  the  tour  of  the 
wall  once  again,  crying  out,  with  a  stronger  voice  than  or- 
dinary, Wo,  wo  to  this  city,  this  temple,  and  this  people! 
concluding  at  last  with  a  Wo,  wo  be  to  myself!  And  in  this 
instant  he  was  taken  off  with  a  stone  from  an  engine  in  the 
middle  of  all  his  forebodings. 


[168] 


APPENDIX   K. 

From  the  Bills  of  Mortality. 
General  Bills  of  the  Plague  in  London  and  Suburbs  from 

1603  to  1666.2 

Year         Plague       Year         Plague 

1603 33,417       1635 0 

1604 896       1636 10,400 

1605 444       1637 3,082 

1606 ,..  2,124       1638 363 

1607 2,352        1639 314 

1608 2,262       1640 1,450 

1609 4,240        1641 ,. .  1,375 

1642.... 1,274 

1643 996 

1644 1,492 

1645 ,  1,871 

1646 2,365 

1647 3,597 

1648 611 

1649 67 

1650 15 

1651 23 

1652 16 

1653 ,  6 

1654 16 

1655 9 

1656 ,  6 

1657 4 

1658 14 

1659 , 36 

1660 13 

1661 20 

1662 15 

2  The  only  Bills  before   1603  are  for  1592    (Mch.-Dec.)   when  11,503 
died  of  the  Plague. 

[169] 


1610 

1,803 

1611 

627 

1612 

64 

1613 

16 

1614 

22 

1615 

37 

1616 

9 

1617 

6 

1618 

18 

1619 

9 

1620 

2 

1621 

11 

1622 

16 

1623 

17 

1624 

0 

1625 

35,417 

1626 

, 634 

1627 

4 

1628 

3 

1629 

0 

1630 

1,317 

HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 


1663 12 

1664 5 

*1665 ., 68,596 

tl666 1,998 


1631 

274 

1632 

8 

1633 

,.'.■..           0 

1634 

1 

*  Dee.  20,  1664  to  Dee.  19,  1665. 
f  Dec.  20,  1665  to  Dec.  19,  1666. 


The   Weekly  Bills   of  Mortality   in  London  and  Suburbs 
from  20  Bee,  1664  to  19  Dec,  1665. 


97 

16 

12  Out- 

5 

Parishes  within  Parishes 

Parishes  of 

Westm. 

the  Walls. 

Without. 

Mid.  &  Surrey. 

Parishes. 

Week 

ending 

Ttl. 

pi. 

Ttl. 

pi. 

Ttl. 

pi. 

Ttl. 

PI. 

97 

16 

12  Out- 

5 

Parishes  within  Parishes 

Parish 

es  of 

Westm. 

the  Walls. 

Without. 

Mid.  &  Surrey. 

Parishes. 

Week 

ending 

Ttl. 

PL 

Ttl. 

pi. 

Ttl. 

PI. 

Ttl. 

PL 

Dec. 

27,  1664 

60 

0 

125 

0 

67 

1 

39 

0 

Jan. 

3,  1665 

66 

0 

136 

0 

102 

0 

45 

0 

Jan. 

10,  1665 

95 

0 

142 

0 

100 

0 

57 

0 

Jan. 

17,  1665 

90 

0 

154 

0 

113 

0 

58 

0 

Jan. 

24,  1665 

104 

0 

184 

0 

118 

0 

68 

0 

Jan. 

31,  1665 

88 

0 

143 

0 

115 

0 

63 

0 

Feb. 

7,  1665 

80 

0 

150 

0 

99 

0 

64 

0 

Feb. 

14,  1665 

85 

0 

180 

0 

121 

1 

76 

0 

Feb. 

21,  1665 

82 

0 

158 

0 

89 

0 

64 

0 

Feb. 

28,  1665 

67 

0 

156 

0 

106 

0 

67 

0 

Meh. 

7,  1665 

83 

0 

176 

0 

165 

0 

77 

0 

Mch. 

14,  1665 

72 

0 

197 

0 

105 

0 

59 

0 

Mch. 

21,  1665 

69 

0 

133 

0 

98 

0 

63 

0 

Mch. 

28,  1665 

68 

0 

160 

0 

74 

0 

51 

0 

Apr. 

4,  1665 

74 

0 

138 

0 

86 

0 

46 

0 

Apr. 

11,  1665 

81 

0 

149 

0 

107 

0 

45 

0 

Apr. 

18,  1665 

66 

0 

126 

0 

93 

0 

59 

0 

Apr. 

25,  1665 

65 

0 

145 

0 

119 

0 

69 

0 

May 

2,  1665 

70 

0 

125 

0 

127 

0 

66 

0 

May 

9,  1665 

54 

1 

123 

1 

114 

1 

56 

4 

May 

16,  1665 

55 

0 

126 

0 

116 

1 

56 

2 

[170] 


OF  THE  PLAGUE  YEAR 


May., 

23,  1665 

63 

0 

125 

2 

129 

7 

63 

5 

May 

30,  1665 

56 

0 

127 

4 

145 

9 

72 

4 

June 

6,  1665 

69 

0 

135 

10 

138 

32 

63 

1 

June 

13,  1665 

67 

4 

179 

27 

238 

71 

74 

10 

June 

20,  1665 

64 

10 

192 

34 

258 

105 

101 

19 

June 

27,  1665 

49 

4 

225 

55 

291 

153 

119 

55 

July 

4,  1665 

93 

23 

360 

166 

345 

176 

208 

105 

July 

11,  1665 

86 

28 

473 

251 

455 

286 

254 

160 

July  18,  1665  141  56  735  416  595  417  290  200 

July  25,  1665  241  128  1210  755  857  628  477  332 

Aug.  1,  1665  228  111  1539  990  804  587  443  322 

Aug.  8,  1665  341  208  1992  1280  1105  879  592  450 

Aug.  15,  1665  496  304  2747  1924  1404  1119  672  533 

Aug.  22,  1665  538  366  2861  2139  1571  1244  598  488 

Aug.  29,  1665  933  700  3627  2928  2045  1759  891  715 

Sept.  5,  1665  1118  864  3736  3151  2549  2261  849  712 

Sept.  12,  1665  1154  896  3488  2936  2250  2030  798  681 

Sept.  19,  1665  1493  1189  3631  3070  2258  2091  915  815 

Sept.  26,  1665  1268  1025  2688  2252  1794  1643  710  613 

Oct.  3,  1665  1149  948  2258  1922  1623  1469  690  590 

Oct.  10,  1665  1109  916  1850  1570  1512  1340  597  501 

Oct.  17,  1665  774  646  1150  929  835  791  360  299 

Oct.  24,  1665  392  295  603  456  601  498  210  172 

Oct.  31,  1665  325  233  470  356  435  323  158  119 

Nov.  7,  1665  418  314  546  445  609  488  214  167 

Nov.  14,  1665  346  262  397  209  460  376  156  103 

Nov.  21,  1665  195  127  298 

Nov.  28,  1665  136  82  156 

Dec.  5,  1665   71  24  139 

Dec.  12,  1665   94  57  132 

Dec.  19,  1665  126  66  156 


117 

302 

235 

110 

73 

82 

178 

125 

74 

44 

64 

160 

90 

58 

32 

70 

147 

74 

69 

42 

75 

187 

106 

56 

34 

[171] 


APPENDIX  L. 

A   general   Bill   of  Mortality   by  Parishes  for   the   Year 

ending  Dec.  19,  1665. 

From  Bell's  London's  Remembrancer. 

The  97  Parishes  within  the  Walls. 

Total 
Burials  Plague 

St.  Albans    Woodstreet    200  121 

St.  Alhollowes  Barking     514  330 

St.  Alhollowes  Breadstreet    35  16 

St.  Alhollowes  the  Great   455  426 

St.  Alhollowes  Hony-lane     10  5 

St.  Alhollowes  the  Lesse   239  175 

St.  Alhollowes  Lumbardstr 90  62 

St.  Alhollowes  Staining    185  112 

St.  Alhollowes  the  Wall 500  356 

St.  Alphage    271  115 

St.  Andrew  Hubbard     71  25 

St-  Andrew  Vndershaf t 274  189 

St.  Andrew  Wardrobe     476  308 

St.  Aldersgate     282  197 

St.  Anne  Black-Friars 652  467 

St.  Antholins  Parish    58  33 

St.  Austins  Parish   43  20 

St.  Barthol.  Exchange 73  51 

St.  Bennet  Fynch     47  22 

St.  Bennet  Gracechurch    57  41 

St.  Bennet  Pauls  Wharf    355  172 

St.  Bennet  Sherehog    11  1 

St.  Botolph  Billingsgate  83  50 

Christs  Church   653  467 

St.  Christophers    60  47 

St.  Clements  Eastcheap    38  20 

St.  Dionis  Back-church  78  27 

[172] 


OF  THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

Total 
Burials  Plague 

St.  Dunstans  East   265  150 

St.  Edmunds  Lumbard     70  30 

St.  Ethelborough    195  106 

St.  Faiths     104  70 

St.  Fosters   144  105 

St.  Gabriel  Fenchurch    69  39 

St.  George  Botolphlane  41  27 

St.  Gregories  by  Pauls  376  232 

St.  Hellens 108  75 

St.  James  Dukes  place   262  190 

St.  James  Garlickhithe    189  118 

St.  John  Baptist 138  83 

St.  John  Evangelist 9  0 

St.  John  Zacharie    85  54 

St.  Katherine  Coleman-streete    299  213 

St.  Katherine  Creech 335  231 

St.  Lawrence  Iewry  94  48 

St.  Lawrence  Pountney    214  140 

St.  Leonard  Eastcheap   42  27 

St.  Leonard  Fosterlane  335  255 

St.  Magnus  Parish  103  60 

St.  Margaret  Lothbury   100  66 

St.  Margaret  Moses  38  25 

St.  Margaret  Newfishst 114  66 

St.  Margaret  Pattons    49  24 

St.  Mary  Abchurch    90  54 

St.  Mary  Aldermanbury   181  109 

St.  Mary  Aldermary    105  75 

St.  Mary  le  Bow    64  36 

St.  Mary  Bothow    55  30 

St.  Mary  Colechurch   17  6 

St.  Mary  Hill    94  64 

St.  Mary  Mounthaw    56  37 

St.  Mary  Summerset   342  262 

St.  Mary  Stayning     47  27 

St.  Mary  Woolchurch    65  33 

[173] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

Total 
Burials  Plague 

St.  Mary  Woolnoth    75  38 

St.  Martins  Ironmonger    21  11 

St.  Martins  Ludgate    196  128 

St.  Martins  Orgars    110  71 

St.  Martins  Outwich    60  34 

St.  Martins  Vintrey 417  349 

St.  Matthew   Fridaystreet    24  6 

St.  Maudlins  Milkstreet   44  22 

St.  Maudlins  Oldfishstreet   176  121 

St.  Michael  Bassishaw    253  164 

St.  Michael  Cornhill    104  52 

St.  Michael  Crookedlane     179  133 

St.  Michael  Queenhith    203  122 

St.  Michael  Queene    44  18 

St.  Michael  Royall     152  116 

St.  Michael  Woodstreet    122  62 

St.  Mildred  Breadstreet   59  26 

St.  Mildred  Poultrey    68  46 

St.  Nicholas    Aeons    46  28 

St.  Nicholas  Coleabby     125  91 

St.  Nicholas  Olave     90  62 

St.  Olaves  Hartstreet    237  160 

St.  Olaves  Iewry    54  32 

St.  Olaves  Silverstreete    250  132 

St.  Pancras  Soperlane .  30  15 

St.  Peters  Cheaps     61  35 

St.  Peters  Cornhill     136  76 

St.  Peters  Pauls  Wharfe   114  86 

St.  Peters  Poore  79  47 

St.  Stevens   Colmanstr 560  391 

St.  Stevens  Walbrooke   34     •       17 

St.  Swithins     93  56 

St.  Thomas  Apostle  163  110 

Trinitie  Parish 115  79 

Buried  in  the  97  Parishes  within  the  walls.  15,207 
Whereof  of  the  Plague 9,887 

[174] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

The  16  Parishes  without  the  Walls. 

Total 
Burials  Plague 

St.  Andrew  Holborne   3958  3103 

St.  Bartholomew  Great     493  344 

St.  Bartholomew  Lesse   193  139 

St.  Bridget   2111  1407 

Bridewell  Precinct   230  179 

St.  Botolph  Aldersgate   997  755 

St.  Botolph  Aldgate    4926  4051 

St.  Botolph  Bishopsgate   3464  2500 

St.  Dunstans   West    958  665 

St.  George  Southwark 1613  1260 

St.  Giles    Cripplegate    8069  4838 

St.  Olaves  Southwark   4793  2785 

St.  Saviours  Southwark   4235  3446 

St.  Sepulchres  Parish   4509  2746 

St.  Thomas  Southwark   475  371 

Trinity  Minories   168  123 

At  the  Pesthouse   159  156 

Buried  in  the  16  Parishes  without  the  Walls,  41,851 
Whereof  of  the  Plague 28,888 

The  12  Out-Parishes  in  Middlesex  and  Surrey. 

St.  Giles  in  the  Fields 4457  3216 

Hackney  Parish    232  132 

St.  James  Clarkenwell 1863  1377 

St.  Katherines  Tower   956  601 

Lamberth   Parish    798  537 

St.  Leonards  Shoreditch 2669  1949 

St.  Magdalen  Bermondsey   1943  1362 

St.  Mary  Newington    1272  1004 

St.  Mary  Islington 696  593 

St.  Mary  Whitechappel 4766  3855 

Redriffe  Parish   304  210 

Stepney  Parish   8598  6583 

[175] 


HISTORICAL  SOURCES  OF  DEFOE'S  JOURNAL 

Total 
Burials  Plague 

Buried  in  the  12  Out-Parishes  of  Middlesex 

•and   Surrey    28,554 

Whereof  of  the  Plague 21,420 

The  5  Parishes  in  Westminster. 

St.  Clement  Danes  1969  1319 

St.  Paul  Covent  Garden  408  261 

St.  Martins  in  the  Fields 4804  2883 

St.  Mary  Savoy   303  198 

S*.  Margaret  Westm 4710  3742 

Whereof  at  the  Pesthouse 156 

Buried  in  the  five  Parishes  of  Westminster,  12,194 
Whereof  of  the  the  Plague  68,596 


The  total  of  all  the  Christenings  for  the  year 9,967 

The  total  of  all  the  Burials 97,306 

Whereof,  of  the  Plague  68,596 


[176] 


BIBLIOGRAPHY3 

BELL,  JOHN 

London's  Remembrancer:  Or,  A  true  Accompt  of 
every  particular  Weeks  Christenings  and  Mortality  in  all 
the  Years  of  Pestilence  within  the  Cognizance  of  the  Bills 
of  Mortality  Being  XVIII  Years.  Taken  out  of  the  Reg- 
ister of  the  Company  of  Parish  Clerks  of  London,  &c.  To- 
gether with  Several  Observations  on  the  said  Years,  and 
some  of  their  Precedent  and  Subsequent  Years.  Published 
for  General  satisfaction,  and  for  prevention  of  false 
Papers.  By  John  Bell  Clerk  to  the  said  Company.  1665. 
BEZE,  THEODORE  0E 

A  shorte  learned  and  pithie  Treatize  of  the  Plague, 
where  in  are  handled  these  two  questions:  The  one, 
whether  the  Plague  bee  infectious  or  no:  The  other, 
whether  and  howe  farre  it  may  of  Christians  bee  shunned 
by  going  aside.  A  discourse  very  necessary  for  this  our 
tyne,  and  country;  to  satisfie  the  doubtful  consciences  of 
a  great  number.  Written  in  Latin  by  the  famous  & 
worthy  diuine  Theodore  Beza  Vezelien;  and  newly  turned 
into  English,  by  John  Stockwood,  Schoolmaister  of  Tun- 
bridge.  B.  L.,  1580.  (There  is  also  a  Latin  ed.  of  this 
book,  1636,  and  another  English  ed.  1665.) 
BOGHURST,  WILLIAM,  M.  D. 

Loimographia.  An  Account  of  the  Great  Plague  of 
London  in  the  Year  1665.  Now  first  printed  from  the 
British  Museum  Sloane  MS.  349  for  the  Epidemiological 
Society.  Edited  by  Joseph  Frank  Payne,  M.  D.  Late 
President  of  the  Society.  1894. 
BROOKES,  RICHARD,  M.  D. 

A  History  of  the  most  Remarkable  Pestilential  Dis- 
tempers that  have  appeared  in  Europe  for  Three  Hundred 
Years  last  past;  with  what  proved  Successful  or  Hurtful 
in  their  Cure,  etc.    1721. 

3  No  claim  is  here  made  of  an  exhaustive  bibliography  of  Plague 
literature,  but  only  those  titles  of  leading  importance  which 
were  accessible  to  Defoe  are  included.  As  already  pointed  out, 
Boghurst's    "Loimographia"    was    unknown    to    Defoe. 

[177] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

BROWNE,  JOSEPH 

^  A  practical  Treatise  of  the  Plague  and  all  Pestilential 
Infections  that  have  happened  in  this  Island  for  the  last 
Century,  etc.     1720. 

Cade,  james 

Londons  Disease  and  Remedy,  or  a  short  and  plain 
Discourse  pointing  at  some  probable  causes  of  this  present 
Judgement  that  lyes  upon  us  together  with  the  most  ef- 
fectual way  and  means  for  the  removal  of  it.  By  Ja.  Cade 
B.  D.  Rector  of  St.  Andrew  Wardrobe,  London.  1665. 
CHICOYNEAU,  FRANCOIS 

Relation    de    la   Peste    Marseille,    donnee    par    MM. 
Chicoyneau,  Verny  et  Soullier.    Geneve:   1721.     (An  Eng- 
lish translation  in  London  the  same  year.    See  also  Mau- 
rice de  Toulon.) 
COCK,  THOMAS 

Hygiene,   or,   a  Plain   and  Practical  Discourse  upon 
the  first  of  the  six  Non-Naturals,  viz,  Air,  etc.    1665. 
COLBATCH,  SIR  JOHN 

A  Scheme  for  Proper  Methods  to  be  taken  should  it 
please  God  to  visit  us  with  the  Plague.    1721. 
DIEMERBROICK,  ISBRANDUS 

Tractatus  de  Peste.  Arnheim:  1646.  2nd  ed.  Am- 
sterdam: 1665.  Extracts  from  this  highly  important 
work  were  translated  into  English  and  printed  in  Lon- 
don in  1666  under  the  title  of  "Several  Choice  Histories 
[i.  e.  Cases]  of  the  Medicines  Manner  and  Method  in  the 
Cure  of  the  Plague,"  etc. 

DIRECTIONS  for  the  Cure  of  the  Plague  as  for  Pre- 
venting the  Infection,  etc.,  set  down  by  the  College  of 
Physicians.  By  the  Kings  Majesties  Special  Command. 
May,  1665. 

DIRECTIONS  for  the  Prevention  and  Cure  of  the 
Plague  Fitted  for  the  Poorer  sort.    1665. 

DISTINCT  NOTES  of  the  Plague.  By  the  Explainer. 
1722.     (This  was  written  in  answer  to  "Some  Remarks  on 

[178] 


OF   THE   PLAGUE   YEAR 

three  Treatises  of  the  Plague,"  etc.,  q.  v.) 
FEATLY,  JOHN 

A  Divine  Antidote  against  the  Plague;  or  Mourning 
Tears,  in  Soliliquies  and  Prayers :  As  1.  For  this  General 
Visitation.  2.  For  those  whose  houses  are  shut  up  of 
the  Plague.  3.  For  those  who  have  Risings  and  Swell- 
ings. 4.  For  those  marked  with  the  Tokens.  Necessary 
for  all  Families  as  well  in  the  Country  as  in  the  City,  in 
the  time  of  Pestilence.  By  John  Featly,  Chaplain  to  His 
late  Majesty  [Charles  I].  1665. 
GADBURY,  JOHN 

Londons  Deliverance   Praedicted;  in  a  Short  Discourse 
on  Plagues  in  General.     August  1665. 
GARENCIERES,  THEOPHILUS,  DR. 

A  Mite  cast  into  the  Treasury  of  the  City  of  London: 
A  Discourse  on  the  Plague.     1665. 

GOLGOTHA;  or,  a  Looking-Glass  for  London,  and  the 
Suburbs  thereof.  Shewing  the  Causes,  Nature  and  Ef- 
ficacy of  the  present  Plague,  and  the  most  hopeful 
Way  for  Healing.  With  an  humble  Witness  against 
the  Cruel  Advice  and  Practice  of  Shutting  up  unto  Op- 
pression. Both  now  and  formerly  experienced  to  in- 
crease, rather  then  prevent  the  spreading  thereof.  By 
J.  V.  grieved  for  the  Poor,  who  perish  daily  hereby. 
London,  Printed  for  the  Author,  Anno,  1665. 
GRAUNT,  JOHN 

Reflections  on  the  Weekly  Bills  of  Mortality,  for  the 
Cities  of  London  and  Westminster,  and  the  Places  adjacent : 
But  more  especially,  so  far  as  they  relate  to  the  Plague,  and 
other  Mortal  Diseases  that  we  English-men  are  most  subject 
to.  With  an  Exact  Account  of  the  greatest  Plagues  that 
ever  happened  since  the  Creation;  and  of  the  Weekly  Bills 
of  the  four  great  Plagues  in  London,  compared  with  those 
of  this  present  year.  1665. 
HARVEY,  GIDEON,  M.  D. 

A  Discourse  of  the  Plague,  etc.  1665. 
HODGES,  NATHANIEL,  M.  D. 

Loimologia,  sive  Pestis  nuperae  apud  Populum  Lond- 

[179] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

inensem  grassantis  narratio.    1672.     (Translated  into  Eng- 
lish by  Dr.  John  Quincy,  1720.) 

An  Account  of  the  Rise,  Progress,  Symptoms  and  Cure 
of  the  Plague,  being  the  substance  of  a  Letter  from  Doctor 
Hodges  to  a  Person  of  Quality.  May,  1666.  (Whether  or 
not  this  letter  was  printed  the  same  year  it  was  written,  I 
am  not  sure.  It  appears,  however,  in  "A  Collection  of  very 
valuable  and  scarce  Pieces,"  etc.,  1721.  Ed.) 
KEMP,  W. 

A  Brief  Treatise  of  the  Nature,  Causes,  Signes,  Preser- 
vation from,  and  Cure  of  the  Pestilence.  Collected  by  W. 
Kemp,  Mr.  of  Arts,  MDCLXV. 

LONDON'S  DREADFUL  VISITATION:  Or,  a  Collection 
of  all  the  Bills  of  Mortality  for  this  Present  Year:  Be- 
ginning the  27th-  [an  error  for  the  20th.]  of  Decem- 
ber 1664.  and  ending  19th-  of  December  following:  Aa 
also,  The  General  or  whole  years  Bill :  According  to  the 
Report  made  to  the  King's  Most  Excellent  Majesty, 
By  the  Company  of  Parish  Clerks  of  London,  &c.  1665. 
MASSA,  N. 

Liber  N.  Massae  de  Peste  Contractus.      1721. 
MAURICE  DE  TOULON. 

Traite  de  la  Peste.    Geneve:  1721.     (Accounts  of  the 
Plague  at  Naples,  Marseilles,  etc.) 
MEAD,  RICHARD,  M.  D. 

A  Short  Discourse  concerning  Pestilential  Contagion, 
and  the  Methods  to  be  used  to  prevent  it.    1720.     (This 
book  went  through  six  editions  before  the  close  of  1720,  a 
7th  ed.  in  1721,  an  8th  in  1722,  and  a  9th  in  1744.) 
DOCTOR  MEAD'S  Discourse  explain'd.    1722. 
PATRICK,  SIMON 

A  Brief  Exhortation  to  those  who  are  shut  up  from 
our  Society,  and  deprived  at  present  of  Public  Instruction. 
1665. 

A  Consolatory  Discourse,  perswading  to  a  chearful 
Trust  in  God  in  these  Times  of  trouble  and  danger.  By 
Simon  Patrick,  Rector  of    St.  Pauls  Covent  Garden.    1665. 

[180] 


OF  THE  PLAGUE   YEAR 

POORE  MANS  IEWELL,  The 

that  is  to  say,  a  Treatise  of  the  Pestilence.  Vnto  the 
which  is  annexed  a  declaration  of  the  vertues  of  the  hearbes 
Carduus  Benedictus,  and  Angelica:  which  are  verie  medi- 
cinable,  both  against  the  Plague,  and  also  against  many 
other  diseases.  Gathered  out  of  the  books  of  diuers  learned 
Physitions.  Imprinted  at  London  for  George  Byshop, 
Anno  1579. 
PYE,  GEORGE,  M.  D. 

A  Discourse  of  the  Plague;  wherein  Dr.  Mead's  Notions 
are  .  .  .  refuted.    1721. 
QUINCY,  JOHN,  M.  D. 

An  Essay  on  the  Different  Causes  of  Pestilential  Dis- 
eases, and  how  they  became  Contagious.  With  Remarks 
upon  the  Infection  now  in  France.  1720.  3rd  ed.  1721. 
SHUTTING  UP  OF  INFECTED  HOUSES,  The 

as  it  is  practised  in  England,  soberly  debated.      1665. 
SOME  OBSERVATION  on  the  Plague,  etc.    1721. 
SOME  REMARKS  on  three  Treatises  of  the  Plague,  viz. 

1.  Dr.  Meads'  Short  Discourse;     2.  Dr.  Mead's  Short 
Discourse  Explained;    3.  Dr.  Pye's  Discourse  of  the  Plague. 
1721, 1722. 
SYDENHAM,  THOMAS,  M.  D. 

Febris  pestilentialis  et  pestis  annorum  1665-6. 

Observationes  Medicae  circa  Morborum  acutorum  his- 
toriam  et  curationem.    1676. 
THOMSON,  GEORGE 

Loimotomia,  or  the  Pest  Anatomized.     1666. 
THUCYDIDES 

The  Plague  of  Athens,  which  happened  in  the  second 
year  of  the  Peloppennesian  Warre,  first  described  in  Greek 
by  Thucydides,  then  in  Latin  by  Lucretius.  Now  attempted 
in  English  by  Tho  Sprat,  (An  excellent  Piece)  Sold  by 
Henry  Brome  at  the  Gun  in  Ivy  Lane.  1665. 
VINCENT,  THOMAS 

God's  Terrible  Voice  in  the  City:    wherein  you  have 

[181] 


HISTORICAL   SOURCES   OF  DEFOE'S   JOURNAL 

1.  The  sound  of  the  Voice,  in  the  Narration  of  the  Two 
late  Dreadful  Judgments  of  Plague  and  Fire,  inflicted  by 
the  Lord  upon  the  City  of  London;  the  former  in  the 
Year  1665,  the  latter  in  the  Year  1666.  II.  The  Interpre- 
tation of  the  Voice,  in  a  Discovery,  1.  of  the  Cause  of  these 
Judgments,  where  you  have  a  Catalogue  of  Londons  Bins. 

2.  Of  the  Design  of  these  Judgments,  where  you  have  an 
enumeration  of  the  Duties  God  calls  for  by  this  Terrible 
Voice.    Printed  in  the  Year  1667. 

WILLIS,  THOMAS,  M.  D. 

A  plain  and  easie  Method  for  preserving  those  that 
are  well  from  the  infection  of  the  Plague  .  .  .  and  for 
curing  such  as  are  infected  with  it.  1691.  (Written  in 
1666.) 

De  Febribus,  etc.,  1659. 


[182] 


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